Alpha Packaging (www.alphap.com) has continued its growth track with the purchase of
Progressive Plastics (Cleveland, OH) a manufacturer of PET, HDPE, PP, and PVC containers.
Acquired in September 2010 by Irving Place Capital, Alpha has quadrupled in size over the past decade through acquisitions and organic growth to a $138 million company with seven plants.
Progressive manufactures bottles using four basic blow molding techniques, and injection blow molds preforms that support its re-heat blow molding operations or are sold to end users.
“Progressive has developed a variety of new packaging options for healthcare customers. We are currently analyzing opportunities to utilize some of the PET preforms we acquired for new stock lines for pharmaceutical and health care applications as well as custom bottles,” says Marny Bielefeldt, marketing manager, Alpha Packaging.
“In addition to purchasing all of Progressive’s machines, we have also bought several additional machines from a different source that will be installed at our existing plants for using the PET performs,” Bielefeldt adds.
Alpha manufactures continuous-thread stock and custom PET, HDPE, and PLA bottles and jars for pharma and personal care as well as niche food and beverage markets. Alpha’s new sister company Mold-Rite Plastics (www.mrpcap.com), acquired by Irving Place Capital last month, supplies Alpha customers with closures.
“Mold-Rite can provide closures for meeting widely varying pharma customer needs, including lined, unlined, or custom made, with features including child resistance, tamper evidence, and in mold desiccant,” Bielefeldt says.
Alpha has stepped up deployment of vision inspection systems and sensors for monitoring bottle color quality, building on systems developed using internal resources. “Recently we have gone outside to purchase commercially-available vision systems to address the increasing complexity of customer requirements,” Bielefeldt says.
“A very small shift in color can dramatically change the look of a bottle. Inspection helps ensure we are using the correct let down ratio—the percent of colorant in the mix versus package weight. We are checking even white bottles to ensure the correct shade of white,” she adds.
Source : www.pmpnews.com
