Plant Manager Tim Clark wants Grayson County to know the Inplast automotive plant is up and running and ready for business.
"We got everything ready to go by April and the customer really wasn't ready for us," said Clark. "Everyone wants to know when we are getting up and going for people to get hired, it could be as late as October, I am just not sure."
The plant is located in the Industrial Park in Leitchfield. The building was previously owned by Inoac bottling company. Five employees is all that works in the Inplast facility so far.
A maintenance person, maintenance assistant, processor, office manager and the plant manager make up the personnel. Plans are to keep the staff small to begin with. Salaried personnel right now is going to be just the plant manager, office manager, and a quality engineer. Clark said they will hire 20 people to begin with. "I hope to have two to three hundred people working for the company in the next two to three years," mentioned Clark.
There is only one molding machine in the plant at this time. By January 2008 Clark hopes to have eight to ten molding machines in the plant. He explained what they are producing right now in the interim is getting Toyota ready for the 2008 Toyota van program.
At present Inplast is only molding a big speaker box and shipping it to Harman Becker in Franklin Kentucky. Harman Becker builds customized automotive systems that enhance your car's driving experience.
They are a Tier One supplier shipping directly to the customer in California. The Inplast facility is going to be a Tier Two supplier.
Harman Becker will always be the middle man answering directly to the customer's needs. Then they relay that information back to Inplast. Fall of 2007 is when the big speaker box comes online (production) for the 2008 vehicle. Three more molds are scheduled to be coming.
All of those parts will be produced for 2007 Lexus vehicles. Two of the parts and the big speaker box (Leitchfield is molding now) will get components assembled to them. The parts will be non-appearance but still functional. Right now Toyota is making and shipping these parts almost weekly to Franklin (Harman Becker).
Two companies out of California combined on a joint venture. Plastikon and Injex both produce parts for General Motors and Toyota. That is how Inplast got it's name In from Injex molding and Plast from Plastikon. They had been shipping product to Harman Becker for a number of years. Harman Becker needed a molder.
"Harman Becker said they could expand and grow their business if Toyota put a factory in close to them," said Clark. "They originally looked a places in Southern Indiana and came up short." He said a realtor told the company about property in Leitchfield. They came down toured the facility and found out it was already setup for injection molding.
"Both Toyota and Harman Becker are really impressed with the plant," said Clark. "They are nothing but positive aggressive companies, they are tickled with the progress of the Leitchfield location." Clark explained the 64,000 square foot building can hold forty injection molding machines depending on the size.
Future plans are for Harman Becker to make Inplast a Tier One supplier. "Harman Becker is building on work all the time," said Clark. "The possibilities are endless on what this plant can produce for automotive."
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