PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2015

PACKING / PALLETISING 22 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 11/15 www.petpla.net PET – a new string to the business by Kay Barton + 33 (0)2 40 05 09 37 SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE DES TECHNIQUES 3 RUE DE L’ÎLE MACÉ - 44 412 REZÉ - FRANCE www. sgt-pet .com SGT, Naturally Innovative The specialist in PET preforms and HDPE caps for over 30 years. WWW.SGT-PET.COM Meet us at 10-12 NOVEMBER 2015 Hall 4 / Stand 4 - 415 Nuremberg, Germany June 19, 2015 We met: Mr Dean Martin, Sales Manager and Mr Mike Crayne, Director of Engineering, Quality & Regulatory Compliance The main offices of Paragon Packaging, Inc. are situated some 50km to the south west of Dallas, in the town of Mansfield in Texas. The company was established at the premises of a former canning factory by Jim Lackey in 1985, initially as a screen printing concern for plastic bottles. In 1997 the current President, Mike Polarek, set up Paragon Packaging and took the business in a new direc- tion, namely the production of its own bottles made from HDPE and LDPE. A second location followed in 2000 in Houston with the acquisition of Messrs. RC Container, its machinery plus a complete customer list. Finally, Para- gon Packaging extended its portfolio in 2012 to include PET bottles. We are interested to identify the motives and aims that lay behind the decision to embark on PET bottle production. In order to satisfy our curiosity, Sales Manager Dean Martin, who has been on board since 1994, together with Mike Crayne, Director of Engineering, Quality & Regulatory Compliance as well as being the company’s first staff employee were kind enough to make themselves available to talk to us. Paragon Packaging, 30% of the shares of which are owned by the employees is a medium-sized enter- prise with courage and ideas. It cur- rently boasts a total output of 35 million bottles and containers, just under one million units of which are accounted for by PET. Occupying premises of around 8,600m 2 in Mansfield and 7,500m 2 in Houston, the company employs 70 / 60 employees on each of the sites respec- tively. Since acquiring its first blow moulding line, the bottle manufacturer has been offering its customer base, which predominantly represents the chemicals industry, for example, in the automotive or cleaning materials sector, local and trans-regional turnkey solu- tions precisely tailored to their products. The finished bottles and containers are printed on or fitted with labels to the customer’s precise requirements.