By: Deborah Johnson Wood
A year ago, Grand Rapids-based BATA Plastics was the first company to move into the 120,000-square-foot former Steelcase “carton building” at 1001 40th Street. Since then it has cut the ribbon on a 3,000-square-foot office addition, created five jobs and applied for LEED certification on both the plant renovation and the office addition.
While BATA is known, and named, for recycling plastics that produce the raw material used in injection molders, the company also recycles metals, wood, glass, corrugated packaging and office paper.
“We try to make a one-stop shop for customers,” says President and CEO Lee Hammond. “We made the move to the new plant because we were growing and were looking for a building we could own and have the opportunity for expansion,” he says of the additional 10 acres purchased at the site.
The company buys recyclable plastic, grinds it and sells it to supply chain manufacturers in Michigan and the Midwest, as well as Canada, Mexico, Italy, and Belgium.
Hammond plans to add another 10 sales and production jobs in the next six to 12 months, bringing the workforce to 80.
“We always love to hire people with plastics backgrounds,” he notes, “but regardless of experience, before someone is allowed on our lines they go through an intensive two-year training program to teach them the differences between plastics. If they don’t know that, they could contaminate the product.”
Hammond adds that during the search for a new location the company was determined to stay in West Michigan and support the local economy.
“There are a lot of good things going on in Michigan,” he says. “It’s not all gloom and doom. There’s some redirection and reorganizing and we’re optimistic about the future.”
Source: W. Lee Hammond, BATA Plastics
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Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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