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Plastics Maker Closing in Anaheim for Mexico

Illinois-based United Plastics Group Inc. plans to close its Anaheim plant and shift work to a new Tijuana plant, laying off about 140 people in the process.

The plant, one of several plastics facilities in the county, plans to close in late July.

“It really hurts to close the factory because we had a number of employees with us many years,” said Matthew Langton, a United Plastics vice president.

Most of the work done in Anaheim is set to move to a Tijuana plant United Plastics plans to open by the end of the year. Some work is set to go to other spots.

United Plastics’ lease on its 150,000-square-foot Anaheim building runs through the end of the year, Langton said.

The reason for the shift is a familiar one: the high cost of doing business here.

“California is not a low-cost place to do business,” Langton said. “When you compete against companies south of the border and in China, it’s very difficult.”


Came by Acquisition

United Plastics came to Anaheim by way of its 2000 acquisition of SPM Inc. from Britain’s Dynacast International Ltd. At its peak, SPM/Anaheim employed about 1,000 people in the city.

“Like a lot of companies at the time, we rode the curve up and then rode it back down,” Langton said. “Our business changed dramatically.”

About four years ago, United Plastics added about 100 workers in Anaheim as part of a consolidation of testing and engineering operations and an upswing in the plastics sector.

At the time, the company shifted work from a Chicopee, Mass., plant to the Anaheim facility at 3125 E. Coronado St., which then employed about 280 people.

The Anaheim site makes plastic casings and parts for medical devices, electronics and automobiles. Plastic from the plant is found in wireless phones, laptops, power tools, car engines and medical devices used to pump blood and monitor glucose.


Other Closures

United Plastics has closed several U.S. plants in recent years and moved electronics subassembly work to factories that have opened in China and Mexico.

“We view ourselves as a contract manufacturer,” Langton said.

The privately held company did about $170 million in sales in 2005, down from $300 million in 2002. The company, owned by Los Angeles private equity firm Aurora Capital Partners LP, employs 1,600 people, down 36% from four years ago.

Rivals include Clinton, Mass.-based Nypro Inc., the Tech Group Inc., a Scottsdale-based unit of West Pharmaceutical Services Co. of Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh-based Precise Technology Inc., part of Britain’s Rexam PLC.


Local Rivals

Locally, the Anaheim plant competes with Garden Grove’s Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., part of France’s Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, and M.R. Mold & Engineering Corp. of Brea.

United Plastics has four U.S. plants, including one in Fremont. It has three in Mexico and three in China.

The closure is the latest in a series for Anaheim.

Auto parts supplier Delphi Corp., which is in bankruptcy reorganization, last year closed its auto battery plant near the Santa Ana (I-5) and Riverside (91) freeways.

In November, Anaheim-based auto parts maker American Remanufacturers Inc. slipped into bankruptcy and let go 750 workers in the city.

Earlier in 2005, East Rutherford, N.J.-based Essex Electric Inc. closed its Anaheim electrical wire plant and laid off about 100 workers. n

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