With more than 1,500 employees worldwide, The Plastek Group is a family owned business with a corporate headquarters in Erie, Pennsylvania, that does plastic-injection molding of consumer products in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Mexico, Brazil and the United Kingdom. Their services include helping design, prototype build/run and move to production tools, production parts and global distribution.
The Plastek plant in Hamlet employs more than 350 people from the area and currently ships products to various areas in North Carolina, Mexico, Philippines, Russia and Italy, and will begin shipping to Canada in 2021. Operating 24/7, the plant employees work 12-hour shifts and have every other weekend off and work around 15-16 days per month. Employees at the plant include engineers, floor workers, program managers, technicians and warehouse workers.
In 2019, the corporation spent $10 million followed by another $20 million in 2020 to upgrade the facility and operational capabilities in preparation for future growth of the division and to continue to support customers with high quality products.
Plastek has partnered with Richmond Community College to offer courses that support the qualified employees the plant will need to incorporate maintenance in HVAC and electrical, megatronics, robotics, and welding and general maintenance. Through this partnership, Plastek offers intern opportunities to students from these programs with hopes of growing and developing the interns into future employees.
In addition to working collectively with RCC, Plastek holds active memberships with the Richmond County Chamber of Commerce and United Way of Richmond County. Further evidencing Plastek’s pledge of community service, the corporation is committed to supporting education and has hosted numerous school field trips where students can interactively learn about the various types of employment at the plant. Additionally, the group has made several donations and other sponsorships for local schools for multiple initiatives, such as for the library and different sports programs.
Twenty-five-year Plastek employee and current Plastek Group Hamlet General Manager Aaron Doehrel is originally from Pennsylvania, but he has happily made Richmond County his home over the past two years. He is proud of Plastek’s response to COVID-19 and commended the employees for their perseverance and resilience during the crisis. Not only did he have multiple compliments for the employees, but also for the corporation as a whole for designing and manufacturing non-penetrable, reusable plastic face shields. To date, they have made more than 20,000 and are making around 1,000 per day. This essential healthcare item is being supplied to hospitals in Ohio and Pennsylvania currently.
Looking after their own has always been a pillar in the foundational beliefs of The Plastek Group, as all of their employees have been supplied with the face shields to wear while working in addition to adhering to the precautionary and safety guidelines set forth for employers as a result of COVID-19.
The Plastek Group has always been a huge point of pride for our community, but with their ingenuity and innovation in designing and manufacturing such a much-needed health care essential item as plastic face shields, we are even more honored and proud to have their plant in Richmond County.
Meghann Lambeth is director of the Richmond County Tourism Development Authority. She is writing a series on how local industries are contributing to the COVID-19 effort, which will also be published at the Richmond Observer. You can read the original post here.
