Currier Plastics adds new equipment to meet client demand

AUBURN — New molding machines at Currier Plastics are helping the company grow its capacity as it continues its efforts to become a one-stop shop for bottle and container customers.

While many plastics companies specialize in either injection molding or blow molding, Currier is unique, contends Massimo (Max) Leone, vice president of business development at the Auburn company. “We have multiple processes that we do under one roof,” he notes.

The typical bottle or container involves both processes in order to make both the container and the lid. That often means customers have to use multiple vendors — one for the container and another for the lid.

Currier, however, can offer both pieces to its customers, Leone says. That makes it a unique one-stop vendor for their customers. It’s an important offering as many customers are looking to streamline their vendor lists for both cost efficiency and overall efficiency.

Adding multiple Automa Electro Series extrusion blow-molding machines to one of Currier’s four blow-molding manufacturing cells gives Currier in-process trimming capabilities as well as automated leak checking. Currier currently has eight Automa machines and 50 machines total, split evenly between injection machines and blow machines. 

Currier spent $650,000 on the new Automa machines, bringing its total investment in equipment over the past year to $2 million, Leone says.

The new equipment gives Currier the ability to meet the needs of its customers and should help the company grow its sales in the personal care and health and beauty aid markets, Leone says. 

It all goes together in a bigger package, he says, by tying in with Currier’s design capabilities. That total package from design to prototyping to finished product is truly what sets Currier apart. Clients didn’t often come to Currier for design services in the past, Leone says, but that has changed in recent years as more customers have learned about design for manufacturability or DFM.

In simple terms, it means that since Currier produces the parts, its engineers also know the best way to design those parts for easy and efficient manufacturing

“It might look beautiful on paper,” Leone says of a design, “but it has to relate to the real world of manufacturing.”

Growth
Between the new equipment and its expanding design side, Currier is growing strongly, Leone says. Over the past several years, sales have grown between 10 percent and 17 percent annually.

The company’s facility has grown as well. In 2013, the company expanded from 65,000 square feet to 130,000 square feet. Currier added more manufacturing space and quality lab space with the $20 million expansion.

“We’re growing at a very nice clip,” Leone says. That growth comes from both new clients and increased business with existing clients.

Currier currently employs 109 people full time as well as a varying number of temporary employees when projects require them. “We’re looking at that growing, but we’re also incorporating a lot of automation,” Leone says. 

The company generated $28 million in revenue in 2013, according to the Works In Progress special report published in the Jan. 24 issue of The Central New York Business Journal. Currier produced $25 million in revenue in 2012, according to a Sept. 27, 2013, Business Journalarticle.

Founded in 1982, Currier Plastics (www.currierplastics.com) provides injection and blow-molding products for a variety of industries including plastic packaging, beauty and cosmetics, amenities, household consumables, electronic connectors, and medical measuring devices.                      

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