ANAHEIM, Calif.—Starlim Group is expanding two operations in Canada.
The $20 million project, which includes $4 million from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, will serve to expand two Ontario-based facilities, Starlim North America in London and Poly-Nova Technologies—a Starlim subsidiary—in Guelph.
According to Starlim CEO Thomas Brundl, the project will create at least 24 jobs—20 in London and four in Guelph—and is projected to be completed by late 2018 or the first quarter of 2019. He spoke about the investment at the recent Medical Design & Manufacturing show in Anaheim,
Together the facilities employ about 200.
“Poly-Nova joined our group almost five years ago, and we prepared all the investment for continued growth,” Brundl said. “Right now we see we're ready for the next step. It will be about more than doubling our production space in North America.”
Brundl said the expansion will include a 90,000-sq.-ft. addition to the London facility, doubling the production area. Starlim plans to break ground on the project sometime after the winter in 2016. A secondary operations room, lab and other capabilities will be added to the facility. He said that machinery will follow, but that is not part of the initial investment.
Starlim focuses on liquid silicone injection molding, while Poly-Nova handles the non-silicone rubbers through transfer molding. The firms do not do any extrusion or tubing.
“Our products are very widespread,” Brundl said. “We talk about O-rings, different kinds of stoppers. It's a really wide range of products. Our focus is liquid silicone. Anything that can be made out of liquid silicone you'll find out of that factory.”
Starlim operates facilities in Austria, Italy, Germany and Canada, and supplies rubber components to the medical, automotive and other industries.