Fortis announces Fort Smith plant expansion
by February 25, 2009 1:15 pm 91 views
Fortis Plastics announced Wednesday (Feb. 25) it would expand production at its Fort Smith plant — good news considering the company laid off about 70 at the Fort Smith plant in early November.
The plant, previously operating as Atlantis Plastics, is located at 428 S. U St., and employed about 300 full- and part-time workers prior to Thanksgiving. About 40 temp workers were cut in November and 30 full-time workers were given layoff notices after the holiday break. About 230 are now employed at Fortis’ Fort Smith plant.
NEW FORT SMITH JOBS?
Manufacturing expansion in Fort Smith is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2009, according to the statement. It is unclear if the expansion will result in new jobs or the return of those previously laid off.
“We are expanding our customer base and product mix in Fort Smith and across the company to include clients in the aerospace, consumer products, industrial and automotive industries, which will create additional manufacturing jobs over the next few years,” Joe Mallak, Fortis CEO, said in an e-mail response to The City Wire’s question about the possibility of the expansion increasing employment in Fort Smith.
Fortis Plastics, a diversified custom molding supplier for the appliance, furniture, building products, industrial, automotive and medical device industries, also announced that the company’s corporate headquarters will be focused in South Bend, Ind., with the certain corporate activities now based in Henderson, Ken., to continue from that location.
Mallak said Fortis was contacted by Arkansas and Fort Smith officials about the possibility of locating corporate functions in Fort Smith.
“None of our corporate functions were originally based in Fort Smith, so we focused on opportunities to strengthen our manufacturing at that facility,” Mallak said. “We worked with local and state officials from the Fort Smith area and appreciate their efforts and support during this process.”
ABOUT FORTIS
Fortis is a subsidiary of New York City-based Monomoy Capital Partners, and was formed in late 2008 when Monomoy purchased the plastics division of Leggett & Platt and the molded plastics division of Atlantis Plastics.
Fortis operates plants in Elkhart, Ind.; Fort Smith, Ark.; Henderson, Ky.; Jackson, Tenn.; Carlyle, Ill.; Popular Bluff, Mo.; Booneville, Miss., Brownsville, Texas, and Ramos Arizpe, Mexico.
Monomoy Capital Partners is a $280 million private equity fund that makes controlling investments in middle market companies, according to its literature. The Fund has completed 21 transactions in the smaller end of the middle market during the past three years and owns 12 businesses that employ more than 8,000 people.
On Feb. 18, Monomoy acquired Moll Ramos from Moll Industries — the company that once owned Moll Plasticrafters in Fort Smith before selling to a local investor group and renamed River Bend Industries.
The 136,000-square-foot injection molding facility in Ramos Arizpe is in an industrial zone that is home to manufacturing operations of Whirlpool, Fortis’ single largest customer.
“The Ramos acquisition will allow Fortis to grow with Whirlpool and other existing customers in Mexico,” Monomoy noted in a statement announcing the acquisition.