Roth Global Plastics molds future in Salina

SALINA — Roth Global Plastics, which operates at the Salina Industrial Powerpark off Military Circle in the town of Salina, is a manufacturer of blow-molded polyethylene residential septic, cistern, and rainwater tanks. 

“We also blow mold private-label parts for other companies where they take care of all the downstream branding, distribution, [and] transportation,” says Joseph Brown, president and CEO of Roth North America. 

Roth North America is a holding company that includes Roth Global Plastics and the Roth Industries manufacturing location in Watertown, according to Brown, who spoke with the Business Journal News Network on Nov. 20. 

The parent company, Roth Industries, headquartered in Buchenau, Germany, is a family-owned business with locations in more than 40 countries, $250 million in annual sales, and 1,100 employees. 

The local operation recently signed a 10-year lease extension at the Salina Industrial Powerpark with its landlord, Detroit, Mich.–based Racer Trust.

Roth Global Plastics started its original 10-year lease at the Salina facility in 2003.

Roth North America specializes in products that produce, distribute and store energy for the residential market. 

Its double-wall oil-storage tanks are produced in Watertown, and the multitanks (septic, cistern and rainwater-collection tanks) are made in Salina.

Roth Global Plastics, which leases 103,200 square feet at the Salina Industrial Powerpark, has 22 employees at the local facility. The Roth Industries 80,000-square-foot manufacturing operation in Watertown employs 23 people.

The company expects to manufacture about 8,000 units (septic and cistern rainwater tanks) at Salina in 2014, says Brown.

“In Watertown, we’ve had a record year in both [double-wall] tank sales and the road-barrier sales, so business has been steadily getting better the last couple of years,” says Brown. 

For its company-branded products for which it manages the sales and distribution channel, Roth sells “exclusively” into the wholesale market, says Brown.

“It means we don’t sell over the Internet, we don’t sell [at] Home Depot, we don’t sell [at] Lowe’s, we don’t sell [at] any mass merchants or retailers,” says Brown.

The firm sells products to wholesale supply houses that may have just one location or have independent ownership.

One such wholesale operation is Bedford, Mass.–based F.W. Webb Company, which describes itself as “the Northeast’s largest distributor of critical products that help people build, maintain, repair, and operate homes and facilities.”

F.W. Webb Company has local operations at 6792 Townline Road in DeWitt.

Operations
Roth Global’s operations include the “world’s largest blow-mold machine,” according to a Racer Trust news release announcing the lease extension.

Its 1,000-pound capacity is about “four times larger than any other machine in North America,” enabling Roth Global to manufacture “higher-capacity tanks” than its competition, the news release said.

Roth makes its multitank (its septic tank) with four “discreet” layers of plastic allowing an interior lining with a food-grade resin, or a “wetted” surface, says Brown.

“That allows [us] to make one tank and use it for multiple applications,” he adds.

A customer could then use the underground tanks for on-site sewage, to gather rainwater, or for low-yield well management, says Brown.

Roth also uses blow-molding technology for its double-wall tanks, which it sells primarily throughout the Northeast for storage of residential fuel oil.

Besides its own products, Roth Global Plastics also manufactures kayaks for Point 65 Sweden, a kayak brand based in Sweden.

“They’re establishing their sales and distribution channel for their [recreational] kayak products here in North America,” says Brown.

Roth Industrial in Watertown also blow molds plastic road barriers for Dallas, Texas–based Trinity Highway Products, LLC, he adds.       

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com