An investment by a local automotive plastics supplier is paying off.
Hawk Plastics in Oldcastle has invested nearly $1.7 million to expand its business.
The company has added a new facility on Outer Drive on top of its sites on Burke Street.
The expansion has also created 16 new jobs.
On Wednesday, Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie announced a provincial investment of $254,445 through the Southwestern Ontario Development Fund to assist with the expansion.
Hawk Plastics Director of Operations Michael Semande says the company has leased the building on Outer Drive with the intent to purchase it.
He says they have added a new 1,100-ton injection moulding press at the site.
“There’s one new piece of equipment in here, but we also built a loading dock,” he says. “We took a building that was not purposed for what we do and made it very purposeful for that investment.”
Semande says Hawk Plastics employs 115 people.
“With some of the funding we are going to do more automating of our current cell structures, and that will create even more skilled trade jobs such as electricians, millwrights, and PLC programmers for robotics,” says Semande.
He says Hawk Plastics specializes in plastic mould injection of Grade A automotive components.
“Some of our biggest customers in the auto sector, such as Toyota, Stellantis, and Ford,” he says. “We manufacture upwards of nine million parts per year, and we’re anticipating tripling that in the next six months.”
He says Hawk Plastics has two manufacturing sites, a maintenance facility, and a large warehouse/storage facility on Burke St.
The upgraded site on Outer Drive includes infrastructure upgrades such as a new loading deck, chiller and cooling tower, hydro service improvements, and the relocation of an existing silo.