Dickten Masch expands into Mexico via purchase of UPG’s Monterrey plantDickten Masch expands into Mexico via purchase of UPG’s Monterrey plant

Dickten Masch Plastics (DMP) has acquired United Plastics Group's (UPG) Monterrey, Mexico manufacturing facility. DMP (Nashota, WI) will call the operation, which has a 105,000-sq-ft facility, DMP Monterrey, S. de R.L. de D.V. In a release, DMP said the acquisition from UPG (Oak Brook, IL) will enable it to support regional manufacturing operations that are "vital to the success of many of its customers" while expanding the company's reach into "key growth markets." UPG Monterrey is a ISO9002 registered facility with 40 injection molding machines ranging from 50 to 500 tons. The site also offers tool repair/maintenance, assembly operations, and program management.

Steve Dyer, DMP President and CEO, said it will be business as usual for its newest plant, with DMP to maintain existing customers, employees, equipment, and processes. "Except for the letterhead, we aren't planning any initial changes," Dyer said.

DMP said it had been seeking to expand into the region, with the UPG facility mirroring its own operations model. Company officials also said the planned thermoplastics and thermoset molding at DMP Monterrey will complement the advanced tooling, materials lab expertise, and specialized production capabilities of its U.S. operations in Nashotah, WI and Ankeny, IA.

Part of the Patmian Group, Dickten Masch Plastics is a custom thermoplastics and thermoset molder that also provides engineering and design support, materials analysis, tooling, rapid prototyping, project management, and secondary operations. UPG provides custom plastics injection molding and services for the medical, datacenter, industrial, consumer, and automotive end markets, with customers in more than 30 countries and manufacturing facilities in the U.S. (California, Minnesota, Texas, Massachusetts), Mexico (Tijuana), China (Suzhou), and Europe (United Kingdom).

UPG's remaining Mexican facility in Tijuana, which is ISO13485 registered, serves electronics, telecommunications, computer/ peripheral, consumer electronics and automotive customers. The 62,000-sq-ft plant has a White Room environment throughout, with an additional Class 100,000 cleanroom.

Both of DMP's existing facilities are ISO 9001:2000 certified, with the Wisconsin site running 40 thermoplastic injection molding machines, up to 725 tons, with 55 thermoset machines, going to 310 tons. In Iowa, it has 40 thermoplastic injection molding machines, going up to 3000 tons. In April 2010, DMP was sold by the Everett Smith Group (Milwaukee, WI), which had owned the company since 2005, to Patmian.