GW expands for the fourth time this year

BETHEL, Vt.—GW Plastics Inc. plans to construct an addition to its Royalton, Vt., manufacturing facility, the firm's fourth expansion involving several plants in less than a year.

It will break ground in the latter part of November on a 21,000-sq.-ft. addition to its 43,000-sq.-ft. plant in Royalton to accommodate additional growth of its liquid silicone rubber and thermoplastic injection molding and medical device contract assembly business.

Cost of the project was estimated at about $10 million, which will cover real estate and machinery in a three- to five-year span, according to Brenan Riel, president and CEO of the Bethel-headquartered firm.

In addition to bolstering the firm's medical device business, he said the expansion will allow for improved work force training and development facilities at its Technical and Training Center, where it conducts scientific injection molding training and manufacturing classes for employees, customers and local area high school students.

The center allows the firm “to take the future in our own hands” with interested high school students and other job candidates, Riel said.

“We've grown, and we've run out of space,” he said. “We have two high tech plants in Vermont—in Bethel and Royalton—and we've experienced double digit growth in our medical device business. We've had record revenues in the last decade—except for the great recession—and we've expanded most of our facilities.”

GW Plastics focuses on organic growth, Riel said, noting the Royalton addition was a planned expansion driven by customer demand.

A second phase of the expansion project is possible, he said, because the facility is scalable to 50,000 square feet. That will depend on the needs of customers and growth of the medical business.

When the current expansion is complete, the facility will have space to house an additional 30 liquid silicone rubber and thermoplastic injection molding machines. The project also includes an enlarged Class 8 clean room for the company's GW Silicones business, which was established in 2008, according to Rebecca Murphy, inside sales and marketing coordinator.

Riel said the Bethel-headquartered company, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, expects to add about 70 jobs at the plant.

Vermont put together a variety of incentives to assist the company in the expansion project, according to Patricia Moulton, secretary of commerce for the state.

She said in a statement the firm “continues to thrive in Vermont due to superb management and work force. We look forward to another 60 years of growth for this advanced manufacturer.”

GW Plastics' expansion at the Royalton facility follows three others launched or completed in the last year.

It finished a 30,000-sq.-ft. addition—which included a clean room, contract assembly area, warehouse and regulatory office space—at its Tucson, Ariz., plant in May to bolster the firm's medical device contract manufacturing operation.

GW Plastics also has completed construction of a 125,000-sq.-ft. factory in Dongguan, China, which is more than double the size of the company's existing plant in the country. GW Plastics now can streamline its tooling, molding and medical device assembly operations at the facility while leaving significant room for future contract manufacturing growth.

It is expected to be fully operational in late 2015 and will feature product development services, in-house tooling, precision molding and clean room contract assembly.

Both were multimillion dollar projects.

In addition, the firm added two 240-ton, high-speed injection molding machines at the Bethel site in early 2015 to expand the factory's capabilities further in the high volume disposable medical device market.

Those additions created the need for an upgrade of the Bethel facility. The machines operate in a Class 8 clean room, and the production cell included the installation of high-speed robotics, part hauling, end-of-arm tooling, automated packaging and metrology equipment. The clean room underwent several modifications to accommodate the equipment.

Cost of that project was about $1.5 million.