Blow molder Hub expands outside Ohio with Midwest Container acquisition

Hub Plastics Inc. is continuing to grow through acquisitions, this time gaining its first location outside Ohio.

The bottle maker has purchased blow molder Midwest Container & Industrial Supply Co. Inc. of Barnhart, Mo., near St. Louis. The acquired company will be known as Hub Plastics-Midwest.

The acquisition was announced April 4. Financial details were not disclosed.

Both companies offer stock and custom bottles and share an overlap in suppliers and customer bases. Midwest brings complementary products that Hub has not offered before, according to a news release. The release did not specify which products, and officials could not be reached at either company.

Midwest owner and President Kent Meentemeyer, who has been with the company more than 40 years, plans to retire, according to capital market company Sikich LLP. Chicago-based Sikich advised Midwest during the sale.

Hub's markets include food and beverage, personal-care, pharmaceutical, agricultural and industrial chemicals, and automotive.

Midwest's custom services include bottle design, additive manufacturing, production models and prototype molds. It also offers decorating services and sleeve and pressure-sensitive labeling. Plastics News estimated Midwest's 2021 sales at $4 million, placing it at No. 107 in the PN blow molders ranking for North America. The company employs about 50 and has 27 blow molding machines.

Hub Plastics ranked No. 61, with estimated 2021 sales of $22 million, 130 employees and 57 machines.

The Midwest acquisition gives Hub its third plant. Hub, which began blow molding in 1971, has its headquarters and one plant in Blacklick, Ohio, near Columbus. It gained an 80,000-square-foot site in Geneva, Ohio, northeast of Cleveland, when it purchased bottle maker Pro-Gram Plastics Inc. in 2019. Last year, Hub acquired Quality Service Products Inc. of Columbus, and relocated that operation to the Geneva facility.

Hub is a portfolio company of Little Mountain Industries Inc., a private equity firm in Beachwood, Ohio.

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