Dec 17 2012
Pexco LLC, an Atlanta-based plastics extruder-manufacturer, will exit the plastics sheet business to focus on profile extrusion and specialty plastics and has announced the closure of its Columbia, South Carolina plant. Plaskolite, Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, has purchased the sheet extrusion assets and order book. Pexco is working with the South Carolina Dislocated Worker Unit to assist in re-employment efforts for the 147 full-time site employees.
Pexco CEO Neil Shillingford remarks, “This has been a difficult decision but a necessary one for our overall business. Pexco’s core business is specialty plastics and profile extrusion. Extruded sheet has been a bit of an anomaly for us and after an in-depth review we have decided to sell this line of business and focus on our core capabilities.”
The 168,000 square-foot plant and operations will be shut down in 2013. The facility’s extruded sheet manufacturing accounted for well over half of the site’s production volume and provided products for the lighting industry as well as industrial applications. The site also manufactured profile extrusions for the retail point-of-purchase and lawn and garden markets.
Pexco will retain and transfer the extruded profile manufacturing business for Lighting and other market applications to four of its other nine locations located in Philadelphia, Houston, Chicago, and Monterrey, Mexico, depending on customer need, manufacturing specialty and capacity.
Shillingford further comments, “This location was the old Southern Plastics facility, and has been part of Pexco since 1970. We have been blessed to be a part of the community for such a long time and this was not an easy decision. We are making every effort to work with employees to help them find employment either in other Pexco facilities or within the local labor market.”
Pexco will be providing workers severance packages, outplacement re-employment, training, and retraining assistance, in addition to working with the Rapid Response employment services team from the Dislocated Workers Unit.
Southern Plastics was founded by Columbia contractor Irwin Kahn and a University of South Carolina chemistry professor in 1940. In 1970, American Filtrona Corp. of Richmond, Virginia acquired Southern Plastics. The Columbia plant has specialized in extruded acrylics targeting the lighting industry as well as many other industrial applications over the years.
Source: http://www.pexco.com