USC Bag Manufacturing wins local approval to build US$11M, 60,000-sq-ft PE bag plant in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico, at site that will double its space, allow it to run 24/7, add equipment such as second printing press

Bdebbie Garcia

LOS ANGELES , October 14, 2011 (Industry Intelligence) – USC Bag Manufacturing LLC has been given the go-ahead from local authorities to build an US$11-million polyethylene bag manufacturing plant in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico, Plastics News reported on Oct. 13.

Approval for the 60,000-square-foot facility, which is expected to open in first-quarter 2013, was given by the village trustees on Sept. 12, said Elliot Berger, the company’s president, in an Oct. 13 interview.

USC Bag, which specializes in zip-closure packaging for cotton balls and pads, wants to move to the new, larger facility from its current plant, Plastics News reported.

The company now operates in a 27,000-square-foot facility that eight-color prints 24 hours a day, five days a week and forms and heat seals bags 20 hours/day, four days/week, according to plans filed with Los Ranchos and Bernalillo County.

The expansion will allow the company to run 24 hours/day, seven days/week, and to add as many as 33 employees to its current workforce of 26 over the next 10 years, said Berger, reported Plastics News.

Included in the plans are a second printing press and a regenerative oxidizer to clean the air leaving the presses’ drying systems.

To fund the project, USC Bag is asking for $12 million in industrial revenue bonds. It has already received a $500,000 pledge from the state of New Mexico, Plastics News reported.

USC Bag supplies bags for US Cotton LLC in Albuquerque, which wanted to reduce the number of its bag suppliers to one from five, said Berger, noting that USC Bag also makes packaging for fruit, tortillas and other grocery products.

US Cotton, a Gastonia, North Carolina-based cotton company, helped start USC Bag in 2005. Both companies have been owned by Gastonia-based Parkdale Mills Inc. since 2008, reported Plastics News.

The primary source of this article is Plastics News, Akron, Ohio, on Oct. 13, 2011.

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