A $3.5 million expansion at a corrugated-box manufacturing company in South Hutchinson will take the plant “from the stone-age to high-tech,” said Tony Schleich, president of the local plant.
Construction of a 6,000-square-foot expansion onto the existing 50,000-square-foot American Packaging plant at 400 W. Blanchard Rd., is expected to be completed within a couple of weeks, Schleich said. The plant will then be ready for delivery of the new multi-million-dollar high-tech equipment, which is now anticipated to arrive in January.
“We’re going from manually pushing carts with material around the plant to a fully-automated conveyor-system,” Schleich said. “The speed of the equipment itself is about 25 percent faster.”
The expansion and equipment upgrade won’t result in any new jobs at the plant, which currently employs 43, but will “ultimately make the existing jobs more secure,” Hill said.
(Read more: Local – The Hutchinson News)