Orbis Corporation — the maker of reusable packaging including plastic pallets and other materials handling equipment — has broken ground on a new manufacturing facility located in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.
The plant will be located in the city of Silao, which is about 250 miles northwest of Mexico City. Construction began in early May and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The company, which is headquartered in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, already has three service centers in Mexico, where it manages and cleans reusable plastic packaging, according to Norm Kukuk, Orbis’ vice president of marketing and new product development.
Currently, the reusable plastic containers used in Mexico are made in Orbis plants in Kansas, Ohio and Kentucky. The new facility will allow the company to support growth in the Mexican market by producing these containers in the same country. The expansion of its Mexican operations allows Orbis to be more responsive with customers there and throughout in Latin America.
“We’re moving where we’ve seen growth, to help support our service level to our customers in that region,” Kukuk told Plastic News. “This just adds the production piece.”
There’s no word yet on how many workers the new plant will employ or what specific products will be made there.
Orbis recently announced that it will close its injection molding facility in Kissimmee, Florida, and absorb the production done there at its other facilities.
Orbis employs about 1,600 people and has about 40 sales, service and manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and Asia.