
Illinois-based Commercial Plastics buys Minnesota injection molder
Terms were not disclosed. Imperial Plastics is a diverse thermoplastic molder with insert, gas-assisted and structural foam molding technologies. It has a 400,000-square-foot plant in Mora, Minn., and a leased headquarters plant in Lakeville.
Imperial Plastics was founded in 1968 and serves the agricultural, building materials, outdoor recreation and industrials end markets. It had a third plant in Mankato, Minn., which it opened in 2014 but closed in early 2017 after it lost contracts from one of its major customers who moved production outside the United States.
Imperial had also grown through acquisition. The Lakeville-based company bought Mora-based Engineered Polymers Corp. in 2014.
Imperial was No. 86 in Plastics News‘ 2019 ranking of North American injection molders, with estimated sales of $85 million. Commercial Plastics ranked No. 90, with estimated sales of $80 million.
Chicago-based Stout advised Imperial Plastics on the sale.

A six-way tie in ranking for injection molders
This group represents combined related sales of $29.3 billion. While that number is above last year by a tiny fraction of 1 percent, the average sales per firm is down 0.8 percent. Why? Mostly due to declines in the automotive market in 2019.
Those companies were hit again with shutdowns due to the pandemic — which aren’t reflected in 2019 numbers — so it’s a tough market, no doubt.
Resin prices dropped a bit among the top materials. ABS, nylon, polycarbonate and polyethylene saw smaller declines of 2-9 percent, however, polypropylene showed the biggest slide at 19.2 percent.
Let’s get back to that pandemic thing, A very non-scientific look at our story listings has 236 mentions of COVID-19 in the eight weeks between the end of February and mid-June. I can’t tell if the disruptions helped or hurt our research.
On one hand, we heard from some companies that had not responded in the past. But at other firms, some communication departments were out of sync with our regular avenues to update information.
Very few of our telephone calls to company headquarters were successful, and our best responses came from email and cell phones.
This leads me into another of my public service announcements, this time to website editors: Please double check the contact email listed online, nothing is worse than generic mailboxes like info@ or customerservice@ bouncing back as undeliverable. If you weren’t contacted for this ranking or any type of recent special coverage, please let us know how best to reach you.
And finally, congratulations to Tessy Plastics Corp. for breaking into the top 25 this year.
Want more information? Visit our top 100 ranking online at http://www.plasticsnews.com/rankings/injection-molders. And watch next week’s issue for the rest of this year’s injection molders’ ranking.

Commercial Plastics Company / Inc. 5000
A plastic injection molding company with core competencies in design assistance, assembly, decoration and logistics. As a qualified supplier, it can also source non-plastics components, manufacture finished assemblies and products, perform quality assurance and ship the finished products to the end user.

Commercial Plastics purchases latest IML automation
Working with CBW Automation, CO and Robotic Automation Systems, WI, Commercial Plastics expanded its technology reach with the latest in IML automation with 2 CBW pre-cut roll fed systems, 1 six-axis Fanuc robot, and 2 three-axis Hahn robots.
The goal of the new technology was to improve the performance of the customer’s product, improve sequential barcode processes, reduce set up scrap rates, expand label technology, improve MDR processes and improve production flexibility. One challenge was the sequential barcodes on each label set that demanded stringent quality control. We now read the barcodes upstream in the process, which eliminates out of sequence barcodes in the molding process. All of these goals were achieve above our expectations and we now have other customers asking to use this technology.

Commercial Plastics Expands Its Focus On LEAN Manufacturing
Commercial Plastics is working to further expand its focus on manufacturing cost control and productivity enhancement through the creation of a dedicated LEAN training program in its Kenosha, WI facility.
The program will be implemented and supervised through the newly created position of LEAN Manufacturing Engineer. The inaugural incumbent is Shriraj Parikh, who is also new to CPC, being hired in from his former position as Lead Lean Engineer for Bimba Manufacturing, Monee, IL.
Parikh joins Commercial Plastics after a 9-year career working in Continuous Improvement and Lean positions for companies in such technical businesses as industrial automation (Bimba Manufacturing), motion and control technologies (Parker Hannifin) and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (Flowserve Corporation). He holds an MS in Industrial Engineering and BS in Mechanical Engineering.
“My immediate objective is to install an effective training program across all plant disciplines, with particular emphasis on CPC’s cell manufacturing system,” said Parikh.

Dudefest is here! A Benefit Concert for Misericordia
Dudefest is an event that is near and dear to the Commercial Plastics heart …
Aug. 13th marks the 6th Annual Dudefest, a benefit concert for Misericordia. The primary goal of the night is to support the programs that enrich the lives of the more than five hundred and fifty children and adults who call Misericordia home. All proceeds from the event will go directly to Misericordia. (http://www.misericordia.com/)
Your support for Misericordia by participating as a Corporate Sponsor is greatly appreciated. The deadline for sponsorship is Friday, August 5th.
Bill O’Connor, President of Commercial Plastics, has been on the event committee since 2012, and the O’Connor family has been supporting Misericordia for over 50 years.
Please let us know if you need any additional information. If you would like to be a sponsor, please contact Commercial Plastics at [email protected]. Why Dudefest? Our dear friend, cousin, sister, aunt, Bree Creevy, nickname The Dude, lives at Misericordia and the main reason behind Dudefest along with all her friends and family at Misericordia.
Questions about the event? Please contact the Dudefest event committee at [email protected]. Thank you for your support – and hope to see you at Dudefest!