That plastic cup holding this morning's yogurt or that tub of margarine for toast could easily be from a Lee's Summit plant.
If not, maybe it soon will be.
Polytainers Inc., based in Toronto, on Wednesday announced a $10 million expansion to add new injection molding machines and about 100 jobs at its Lee's Summit plant.
The injection molding plant on Douglas Street near Interstate 470 is one of two the company owns.
"We wouldn't be doing this if we didn't have confidence in the team down here," said Polytainers owner Bob Barrett.
The Lee's Summit plant opened in 1990. The company says its growth in sales since then means it needs more molding machines to meet demand.
The company, one of the three largest in its field in North America, produces about 3.2 billion rigid food containers yearly, shipping them everywhere from Olathe to California.
About 18 truckloads of containers leave the Lee's Summit plant daily, where the company tries to produce an average of 3.4 million containers a day.
With the addition of space and more molding equipment, the company hopes to increase production at Lee's Summit by about 130 percent, Barrett said.
In 35 years the company's sales have grown from $20 million to $160 million annually, Barrett said.
The containers are used by companies packaging name brands, such as General Mills/Pillsbury and Kraft, or filling them for major grocery store brands. The plants produce various shapes of 4-ounce to 5-pound containers.
Polytainers Inc. also is one of the leaders for printing on the thin-walled plastic containers, winning industry awards for its eight-color capabilities.
The Toronto location is landlocked, and executives decided against building at a nearby site there because of the land expense.
At Lee's Summit, there is room to build and excess capacity in the printing section of the plant, Barrett said.
So the company decided on a 50,000-square-foot addition to its 170,000-square-foot Lee's Summit facility. Construction is to be finished by February.
The company has about 180 employees in Lee's Summit and hopes to add about 100 jobs in five to six years, said plant manager Charlie Bernhard.
It employs laborers, skilled and unskilled, with pay scales ranging from $10 to $20 an hour, for jobs including simple stacking and boxing of containers, and setting up and running automated molding and printing machines.
The Kansas City Star, Russ Pulley.
Jim Devine is 2010 Missouri Professional Economic Developer of the Year
