Anaheim-based C. Brewer Co., a maker of plastic molds and components used by medical and technology companies, plans to manufacture outside Orange County for the first time in its 46-year history with a plant in San Bernardino County.
The company is setting up shop in a 30,000-square-foot space in Ontario, where it will assemble medical devices and make plastic molds for a variety of products.
The expansion gives C. Brewer 135,000 square feet of manufacturing space, along with plants in Anaheim and Irvine.
The third-generation family business signed a multiyear lease for the Ontario plant, taking over space from San Diego-based CareFusion Corp., a medical device maker.
Testing the Waters
The lease is designed to allow C. Brewer to test the Inland Empire’s business waters while buying time to scout a permanent future site, officials said.
“We were having some capacity constraints,” Chief Executive Chuck Brewer said. “This allows us to see how friendly it is to operate outside Orange County.”
The Ontario plant is set to run 24 hours a day by March and employ 50 people by year’s end. Eventually, temporary and full-time employment will range from 120 workers to more than 300 based on demand and seasonal factors.
C. Brewer employs about 280 workers here. It counts on medical devices and molds for most of its annual sales of about $35 million. It also makes protective glasses, surf board fins, automotive components and other gear.
The company came through the recent recession in a strong position as the economy begins to recover, according to Brewer.
“We’ve been in pretty steady growth for a few years now,” he said. “We did not have a setback as so many had anticipated.”
C. Brewer’s main competitors include Nypro Inc. of Clinton, Mass., Wisconsin’s Scientific Molding Corp., and Southern Plastic Mold, which was started in Anaheim in 1954 and acquired in 2000 by Illinois’ United Plastics Group Inc., which is controlled by Los Angeles private equity firm Aurora Capital Group.
Company Background
C. Brewer Co. was founded in 1965 in the family’s garage in La Mirada by Charles Brewer Jr., a second-generation mold-maker by trade. In 1966 he moved the business to Fullerton. It eventually outgrew that location.
Brewer Jr. bought land for a move to Anaheim in 1975. He later acquired adjacent property, and the company has been headquartered there since.
Brewer Jr. ran the technical side of the company while his wife Marilyn ran the daily business of the office before she entered electoral politics, winning a seat as a Republican in the state assembly. She represented southern Orange County’s 70th District from 1994 to 2000.
In 1997, Chuck Brewer and his brother Michael, who serves as president, bought controlling interest of the company.
