The company will reportedly invest US$19.2m (€15.2m) in the upgrade, made up of $15.3m in machinery, equipment and re-tooling and $3.9m on construction including investment from the Muncie-Delaware County Economic Development Alliance.
According to the firm, the closure of the Cornwall plant is to better integrate sheet facilities and upgrade capabilities to better serve their customers.
Production lines will be shifted to Granby in Quebec by the end of January 2013.
New Indiana site
The 60,000-square-foot expansion will increase the current site size of 167,000 square feet and add 32 jobs when it is completed at the start of November.
It will enable the installation of two extrusion lines and several thermoforming lines needed for Spartech to support the growing demands of its customers.
The plant in Muncie was purchased in 1999 by Spartech and first opened in 1984 as part of Ball Plastics.
Christi Emmenegger, corporate marketing communications manager, told FoodProductionDaily.com: “[The site will] add approximately 60,000 square feet to accommodate another co-extrusion line and production equipment.
“We need to ramp up with more capacity to meet our growing customer demand.”
The plant manufactures food packaging products in the form of rollstock for form/fill/seal applications and thermoformed containers for customers such as ConAgra Foods Snack Pack pudding and Knouse Foods Musselman’s applesauce.
Vicki Holt, Spartech’s president and CEO, said: “The Muncie plant has been an exemplar plant for Spartech for years so I’m excited about the new resources this investment will bring to our employees, customers and the local community.”
Plant closure
Meanwhile, Spartech will close their Cornwall plant in Canada and move operations to Granby in Quebec.
Emmeneggeradded: “We still remain fully committed to the Canadian market.
“This closure is a result of Spartech needing to better integrate our sheet facilities and upgrade our capabilities to better serve the needs of our customers.
“Most of the business will be transitioned to the Granby Quebec plant, two hours distance from Cornwall, by the end of January 2013.”