[G]W Plastics, a 64-year-old silicon molding and contract manufacturing business based in Bethel, is growing fast overseas. This week, it announced plans to spend $6.8 million on an expansion in Europe.
The company, which makes precision molds and manufacturing services for the medical device, diagnostics, and pharmaceutical markets, said it plans to increase its product development, precision tooling, injection molding, and contract assembly capabilities in Europe.
GW Plastics bought the Irish company Avenue Mould Solutions in 2017 as its first European location. Company officials said Friday in a prepared statement that they will expand GW Plastics’ advanced manufacturing operations in a 28,000-square-foot space in Sligo, Ireland.
GW Plastics has invested more than $25 million on growth in recent years, according to the magazine Plastics News. It said it now has more than 1,000 workers — 400 of them in Vermont — in eight facilities that together cover more than 500,000 square feet. Its revenues have grown 52 percent over five years, company officials said.
GW Plastics has $165.5 million in annual sales, up from $153.2 million the previous year, according to Plastics News. That puts it at 57th in a ranking of injection molding companies in North America.
It has sites in the Vermont towns of Bethel and Royalton, and has facilities in Arizona, Texas, Ireland, Mexico and China. Company officials said the process development and training center in Royalton is where the company develops production processes for new molds to be introduced to all GW Plastics production facilities worldwide.
GW Plastics received financial incentives from Ireland for its most recent expansion, the company said. It has also received money from Vermont. The state Agency of Commerce and Community Development’s Department of Economic Development last year gave the company a Vermont Training Program grant of more than $80,000 to pay for process engineering and apprenticeship training, and for a semester-long program on advanced manufacturing that GW Plastics provides to high school students.
GW Plastics was also approved for state grants of between $540,434 and $977,125 from 2015 and 2019. That money would come from the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive, which awards money after jobs are created. Also in 2015, the company accepted $500,000 from the state to help cover the capital costs of its 21,000-square-foot expansion near Royalton.
A company spokeswoman said Friday that its top officials were in Ireland and couldn’t return calls seeking more information. Meanwhile, company officials said in prepared statements that they expect more expansion.
Earlier this month, GW Plastics announced it had expanded its 13-year-old facility in Querétaro, Mexico. It expanded its 125,000-square-foot Dongguan, China, factory and its Tucson, Arizona, plant in 2014. The company also expanded its headquarters near Royalton in 2015. Last year, it expanded its facilities in San Antonio, Texas.
“GW Plastics has implemented a deliberate and strategic growth strategy,” said president and CEO Brenan Riehl in a statement. “Our company has enjoyed ongoing year-over-year record revenue, and we are committed to supporting this growth by continuing to invest for our customers, worldwide.”
