Arch Plastics ramping up production
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| Charles Amin | - Download MP3- |
By Brooks Rexroat
Staff Writer
Inside a clean but noisy Chattanooga plant, Arch Plastics Packaging workers stack pharmaceutical bottles in cardboard boxes and label them for shipping.
The bottles are coming from three fully automated machines -- each worth more than a million dollars.
By 2010, the two dozen workers and three machines now in place could become more than 100 workers and 10 machines as the company ramps up production to meet growing industry demand, owner Charles Amin said.
"We will be adding floor and office jobs," he said. "As we grow, we'll need more people on the production floor, as well as in support positions."
Revenues are expected to grow from $1.5 million in 2007 to $15 million in 2010, said Shital Rali, Arch's project manager.
With an aging baby boomer population, pharmaceutical and personal care product sales have soared, Mr. Amin said. The combined industries are expected to do nearly $11 billion in business by 2009, giving Arch Plastics a steady avenue for growth, he said.
"We started with one primary customer, and in the last six months, we've added two other large-scale customers," Mr. Rali said. "We want to have a couple more by the end of the year."
Arch makes bottles for products such as pills, shampoo and hydrogen peroxide. Since those products must be made under strict sanitary conditions, the company is equipped to handle just about any sort of bottle, Mr. Rali said.
"Better to start at the top and be able to make anything than to start at the bottom and try to improve," he said.
Ray Childers, president of the Chattanooga Manufacturers Association, said he is happy to hear the company will be expanding.
"This is the kind of good news we wait anxiously to hear," he said. "We're glad the company has seen fit to expand here, and we're glad Chattanooga has offered the quality of life and resources that allow them to grow here."
The company moved into its Polymer Drive building in 2006 after choosing Chattanooga over sites in Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia, Mr. Amin said.
"That's why we're here," he said, pointing to a train as it pulled up to his building's dock.
With materials coming from the Northeast and finished products going deeper south, Chattanooga's transportation assets were key, Mr. Amin said.
"We can save a major pharmaceutical manufacturer $250,000 to $500,000 a year in transportation costs alone," he said.
Arch is not the only company that has been attracted by Chattanooga's shipping routes, Mr. Childers said.
"Chattanooga is an excellent transportation hub with three interstates, two major railroads and access to 1,600 miles of navigable waterways," he said.
Arch's existing three machines -- capable of producing 28 million bottles a year -- are booked through the end of the year, and a fourth should be installed by August, Mr. Amin said. That will bump capacity to 40 million bottles annually.
As the company grows, there are plans to move warehousing operations out of the main building and add a 60,000-square-foot warehouse on the existing site, he said.
E-mail Brooks Rexroat at brexroat@timesfreepress.com
Staff Photos by D. Patrick Harding
Charles Amin, CEO and president of Arch Plastic Packaging, is hoping to add 75 jobs this year.
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