by Dianna Brodine
Plastics Decorating
In Michigan, the automotive industry downturn in 2009 hit nearly every business, requiring a reality check and a revised plan for continued survival. For Eimo Technologies, Inc., that reality check was intensified by the knowledge that the injection molder recently had shifted its market focus to the very industry that now was in the national economic spotlight.
Changing ownership, shifting markets
Founded in 1969 as Triple S Plastics, the Vicksburg, MI-based injection molder originally was owned by three local businessmen – Dave and Phil Stewart and Vic Siemers. Early customers included IBM, Eastman Kodak, Xerox and Polaroid, but the focus shifted over the years to cell phone production. “In 2001, Triple S was riding the wave of the telecommunications boom,” explained current General Manager Gary Hallam. “At the urging of our largest customer, Nokia, Triple S merged with Eimo Oy o Lahti Finland to form a mega-supplier to the telecomm industry.” With a presence on four continents (Europe, Asia, North and South America), Eimo was an attractive target for those looking for entry into a hot telecommunications market and, in 2003, Eimo was acquired by Foxconn. Soon, the molding was consolidated at the Foxconn campus in Shenzen, China.
With its previous reason for existence moving overseas, the Eimo facility in Vicksburg needed to reinvent itself in 2005 and 2006. “While Foxconn closed every other Eimo facility worldwide, Eimo Vicksburg scratched and clawed and survived,” Hallam said.
In 2008, Foxconn sold the Vicksburg facility to Nissha Printing of Kyoto, Japan. Nissha – an in-mold decorating (IMD) film supplier – and Eimo had enjoyed a 10-year relationship as supplier/customer, with Nissha’s IMD process used to decorate the clear acrylic lenses in millions of cell phones. “Nissha wanted to have a molding facility in North America to showcase its product and IMD processes to potential customers,” said Hallam. “This union created a vertically integrated IMD injection molding supplier unique to the industry, and Eimo now is in the seventh year of Nissha ownership.”
Today, Eimo’s Vicksburg facility has reinvented itself as a high-end decorative automotive supplier, while keeping a diverse portfolio of traditional molding. The most recent numbers show an industry split that is 52 percent automotive, 21 percent home living (appliance, home audio and beauty care) and approximately 15 percent medical. The company molds and decorates automotive interiors and exteriors, such as the Chevy “bowtie” and red GMC badges; appliance fascia for refrigerator ice/water dispensers and washer/dryer control panels; and consumer products, such as the Bose Soundtouch 20 and 30 systems.
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