McNeely Plastics invests in bagmakers, blown-film lines
By Contributing Editor Jim Sooy -- Converting Magazine, 2/5/2009 2:00:00 AM
"Our goal isn't to be a large company, but we do want to offer our customers all the advantages that larger, integrated companies can provide,” says Greg McNeely, president of McNeely Plastic Products (www.mcneelyplastics.com) in Clinton, MS. “We are extremely customer-focused. We are always looking for packaging that adds value to our customer's products because their growth will be our growth.”
So far, that corporate philosophy is working. While McNeely and his partners, vp-gm Dave Clark, vp Wayne Davis, and vp and national sales mgr. Shannon Watts may not want their company to become some kind of global behemoth, McNeely Plastic Products has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in Mississippi. Their business has been a continually evolving success story since 1996, when Greg and company, then a distributor and reseller of bags and box liners, decided to manufacture their own products. “We made the decision to become a manufacturer because it would allow us to better serve our customers. We gained control of the quality process, we could sell our products at more competitive prices—and at the same time, we could earn a larger share of every customer dollar spent for packaging,” McNeely explains.
From distributor to owner
McNeely Plastic Products made the entry into converting by purchasing a small plastic-products manufacturer that came up for sale just outside Jackson, MS. Davis and Watts were with the acquired company, and Clarke made the move from Flexol to complete the team in 2002. At the time of purchase, the company was manufacturing the converter and shrink films, box liners, and bags for which McNeely was the primary distributor.
Today, McNeely Plastic Products makes a wide variety of packaging materials including films, laminates, roll stock, pouches, sheeting, tubing, box liners, cushion-packaging and plain, reclosable-, wicketed- and modified-atmosphere-packaging bags in a modern 75,000-sq-ft plant. Its warehousing facilities throughout the Southeast accommodate the needs of their customers. Annual sales are rapidly approaching $35 million, and the company is looking to hire its 100th employee.
“We are well-positioned to serve the increasingly complex needs of our customers as they push to increase their market share in very competitive multinational marketplaces,” says Watts. “We have the capability to develop advanced, barrier or non-barrier packaging solutions that has allowed these same customers to achieve a competitive advantage through packaging innovation. In addition, we provide packaging consulting, environmental-stewardship and compliance guidance, food-safety and handling expertise, and materials and supply-chain management which offer many of our customers a significant cost advantage.”
From auto parts to poultry
McNeely Plastics has a diverse base of more than 400 active customers for its retail, institutional, and barrier-packaging products from the world's largest poultry processors for which it converts vertical form-fill-seal, MAP, recloseable and standup pouches, and box liners to large furniture bags for an avant-garde furniture manufacturer, and retail packaging for department, hardware and auto parts stores. “The diversity of our customer base and their very different needs requires not just a commitment to quality but tremendous flexibility in our manufacturing operations,” Davis adds.
“To increase production capabilities and improve the quality of our products over competitors, we completely upgraded or replaced existing film lines,” continues Clarke. The company installed a new Gloucester Engineering (www.gloucesterengineering.com) blown-film extruder with Brampton Engineering (www.bramptonengineering.com) dies and air rings, and added Siemens (www.siemens.com) gravimetric PLC-controlled blending systems on every line. New Corona Designs (www.coronadesigns.com) surface treaters with adjustable web-width treat capability and power supplies allow film treatment up to 46 dynes.
“As a rapidly growing company, our goal was to install systems that increased throughput, added versatility and improved quality, but systems that would not require an extended learning curve for our existing operators,” Clarke says. “We doubled our capacity and added 15 new customers.”
After upgrading in-place systems, McNeely Plastic Products added 30,000-sq-ft of new manufacturing and warehouse space, in part to accommodate two new Windmoeller & Hoelscher (www.whcorp.com) VAREX® blown-film lines. The 63- and 87-in., three-layer coextrusion lines have Optifil® P2 systems for thermal gauge-profile control and Filmatic® dual winders. Each line, by itself, adds more than a million pounds of new capacity.
Wicked wicketer
Next came Hudson-Sharp Machine Co. (www.hudsonsharp.com) bag-wicketers to complement the converter's Ro-An Corp. (www.roan.com) bagmaking machines. “The new wicketers improved quality and increased production rates by 25 percent on a fast-running, light-gauge film [0.9- to 1.0-mil] we were running,” explains Clarke. Achieving speeds up to 300 cycles/min, day after day, made the equipment choice an easy one when the time came to add a new line, Clarke says. A McNeely customer can now choose wicketed bags from 4 to 30 in. wide and up to 36 in. long.
Until this past summer, McNeely has outsourced its package printing, but the equipment-selection process for an in-house, 10-color press with in-line coating is underway—and Clarke says that will include in-house prepress operations as well.
McNeely and his team have a commitment to environmental stewardship which includes the aggressive pursuit of eco-friendly packaging and material source reduction as well as recycling programs. In one example, the company is a committed partner in Operation Clean Sweep®, a program implemented to prevent resin-pellet loss into the environment.
With all its capital-equipment investments over the past 18 months, McNeely Plastic Products is well-positioned to be a better supply-chain partner, McNeely says. “We pride ourselves on shorter turnaround times from concept to finished package, competitive pricing through cost containment and source reduction, and delivery when promised with unsurpassed quality.”
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