OC’s Big in Plastic , and Not Just Surgery
Orange County’s been called a plastic place. Turns out, it is.
With some 500 facilities employing 18,000 workers and generating $3.1 billion in revenue last year, Orange County is a big player in the plastics industry, according to Washington, D.C.-based industry group The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., or SPI.
In California, which leads the nation in plastics employment, OC is second only to Los Angeles, said Lori Anderson, SPI director of international and economic affairs. Last year, OC accounted for 12% of California’s $24 billion in plastics shipments.
In 1995, SPI’s Western branch moved from Long Beach to Irvine. Before that, the regional office was in Los Angeles. The trade group said its migration southward has followed that of the regional plastics industry.
“We see it as an evolution,” said Frank Capolupo, head of the Irvine office. “Over the past 20 years, the ndustry has shifted from Los Angeles to Orange County and the Inland Empire. I believe that we are going to stay in Irvine for quite some time.”
Technology is the driving force behind the growth of plastics in OC. Since 1996, 100 new plastics makers have sprouted here, adding 3,000 jobs to the area, according to SPI.
In Garden Grove, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., part of France’s Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, recently opened a new 182,000-square-foot production and office facility. The site, which employs 600 people, produces plastics for the semiconductor, medical, aerospace and other industries.
By year’s end, Saint-Gobain hopes to add another 200 workers or so, said Scott Bentley, the company’s western regional human resources manager. “I just moved here from Ohio,” he said. “I am surprised at the level of talent. We’ve been in a hiring frenzy.”
“Seventy percent of our business is in the high-tech area,” said Mike Chastain, vice president of operations for the SPM/Anaheim, which produces plastics for the computer, medical and electronics industries. “Because of all the high-tech companies, there is a strong base of labor, especially for design and tooling.”
The Anaheim-based company, which is being acquired by United Plastics Group Inc. of Westmont, Ill., is one of OC’s largest plastic injection molding companies. SPM generates $80 million in yearly revenue and employs 1,000 in Anaheim alone. Customers include Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Dell Computer Corp. and Compact Computer Corp.
High-Profile Uses
From aerospace to the Internet, plastics have helped drive the growth of high-profile industries, said Jim Albert, general manager for M.R. Mold & Engineering Corp. in Brea, which produces computer casings and satellite TV dishes.
“Even though we are a high-tech industry, we are still a hand-me-down trade and use apprenticeships,” Albert said. “Coupled with the fact that the industry is not well advertised, it makes us unknown to many people.”
OC’s proximity to ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles and the county’s skilled labor force have helped the plastics industry grow here, Albert said.
The area also is within a couple hours’ flying time of clients in other technology hubs such as Silicon Valley and Texas, SPM’s Chastain said.
Pockets of Concentration
The plastics industry does not have a national hub but rather several pockets with a high concentration of companies. The Midwest, with its ties to the auto industry and Chicago’s technology sector, is considered the largest area of plastics companies in the country. Massachusetts and Texas also support big plastics industries with their technology sectors.
By employment, California was tops in 1999 with 137,600 industry workers, according to SPI. By plastics shipments, California was second last year to Texas’ $31.5 billion. Nationally, plastics shipments totaled $304 billion last year, up 35% from 1994.
But just as Orange County has seen a migration of plastics manufacturers from Los Angeles over the years, the area now is seeing more production move to the Inland Empire, officials said. With the strong economy, OC plastics makers are finding it hard to get workers.
“While the production part of the plastics industry has moved to Riverside County because of cheaper labor, there is a shortage of skilled employees in this area,” said Albert of M.R. Mold & Engineering.
As with other industries, the plastics business has taken on some local flavor here in OC.
Earthpack, part of Costa Mesa-based Leisure Time Packing Inc., was founded by Dave Bock to protect the environment through the use of recycled plastics.
“Being part of the surf community, I wanted to protect the environment that allowed me to surf,” Bock said.
Earthpack is a distributor of recycled packaging bearing company logos and other images. Quicksilver Inc. and Jack’s Surfboards, both of Huntington Beach, are customers, as is New York-based The Warnaco Group Inc.’s Speedo unit. n