Household products

Inland Label's MAXX Scoop IML label family beat out 231 entries from packaging suppliers and graphic design firms throughout North America to win the GOLD PAC Leadership Award at the Packaging Association of Canada's (PAC) biannual Awards Gala held in Mississauga, ON.

A new optical pellet screening system employs a combination of LED illumination, cameras, and air blowers to detect and remove pellets with black spots from a stream of resin pellets with a resolution (spot size) of 0.03 mm. The Super Platon KP-10000T from Kubota (Tokyo) was recently installed at an Asian elastomer compounder.

While all the talk of late centers around reshoring manufacturing, Intertech Plastics Inc. created its marketing plan around the value of being a regional supplier. The plan has paid off in customers making the choice to shorten their supply chain and manufacture locally. Last year, as a result of a big increase in business, Intertech Plastics (www.intertechplastics.com) recently invested $2 million in new molding equipment and automation.

Looking for growth in all the right places is what UniKeep LLC is attempting, and has engaged Generational Equity, an M&A firm, to strategically explore options for its proprietary molding division. UniKeep, a division of Univenture Inc. in Marysville, OH, manufactures a variety of unique consumer and commercial products including injection molded cases, binders, and related accessories.

Over the next month as you’re heading out to do your holiday shopping, think about this latest shopper research survey from Perception Research Services International (PRS): Four out of five shoppers notice “Made in the USA” claims on packaging—similar to 2011 levels (83% vs. 80%).  And most of these shoppers (76%) claim that they are more likely to purchase a product after noticing the “Made in the USA” claim, reports PRS.
   

Everyone says they are willing to pay more for products made in the USA, but is that true? According to the results of a new survey from Boston Consulting Group, more than 80% of U.S. consumers say that they are willing to pay more for products labeled “Made in USA.” However, even more surprising is the fact that 60% of Chinese consumers say that they are also willing to pay more for “Made in USA”-labeled products than for products labeled “Made in China.”
   

There's a new player in the rapidly emerging field of engineered wood-reinforced plastic compounds for durable goods applications.

The Sonae Industria Group, a French wood products company with an office in Quebec, plans to build production capacity for its WoodForce material in North America and Asia, although no timetable has yet been established. The company made its North American debut this week with a presence at JEC Americas in Boston, the first-ever JEC Composites show in North America.

Made-in-America is garnering more and more attention from the national news media as consumers increasingly prefer American-made products versus those from overseas. A recent study by AARP noted that 72% of consumers in the 50-64 age group say Made-in-America labeling “significantly influences their purchases,” and 81% of that group noted that they buy American because they believe it helps the economy.

It seems that some people in this country want manufacturing jobs—they just don’t want manufacturing. Over the past couple of decades there have been numerous lawsuits against product manufacturers (many of them plastic product manufacturers) for products that have caused injury or even death to users. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is the watchdog for products that are inherently defective in design or manufacture, and in most cases companies issue voluntary product recalls when alerted to a problem.
   

Starting 2014, polypropylene compounds will be manufactured in Saudi Arabia at a joint venture of A. Schulman (Akron, OH) and National Petrochemical Industrial Company (NATPET, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia).