Order Reprints

By Nathan Peck | MiBiz
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Bata Plastics’ Lee and Matt Hammond plan to expand their operations into McAllen, Texas to better court new business in the southern U.S. and from cross-border companies. FILE PHOTO

GRAND RAPIDS — It pays to follow your customers.

Plastics recycler Bata Plastics followed its customers and broadened its reach as a result, opening a new recycling center in the McAllen Foreign Trade Zone in the city of McAllen, Texas across the border from Reynosa, Mexico. The satellite facility gives Bata a stronger presence as it courts business in the Southern U.S. and from the maquiladoras — cross-border manufacturing operations for U.S. businesses in Mexico.

“We’ve been pulling material out of Mexico for years. We had been working out of Brownsville for seven years, working with automotive manufacturers and companies there,” said Lee Hammond, president of Bata Plastics. “One of our larger customers is opening a facility there and asking us to come down and do their recycling. We are up and running, and the added benefit is the move frees up capacity (in Grand Rapids).”

Rather than the old chestnut about the local company moving south to find cheaper wages, land, or operating costs, Bata sees growth opportunities both in Michigan and Texas coming out of expanding into another market.

Bata Plastics employs 90 people in its 120,000-square-foot Grand Rapids headquarters. It currently employs 10 in McAllen but plans to add another 80 employees there in coming years. Bata had operated out of a facility in Brownsville, Texas, but the site lacked easy access to rail and major highways.

The 70,000-square-foot McAllen facility is set up with the same sorting, grinding, and testing capabilities as its Grand Rapids operations and will be capable of processing 30 million pounds of recyclable plastics, cardboard and metals. Bata moved one operations manager from the Grand Rapids facility to McAllen to manage the facility and ensure quality control standards remain high. The two facilities will be run as mirror sites, as logistics and other costs prohibit materials from being transported over long distances, said Matt Hammond, VP of operations.

“We have brought on additional experience in our operations, and this freed up some capacity in bidding jobs here,” Matt Hammond said. The new facility “has helped us be a more efficient operation.”

The McAllen facility gives Bata greater penetration into the number of vehicle, appliance and consumer product goods manufacturers across the border in Mexico, as well as access to fruit and nut growers throughout the Southwest and into California.

“There is a communal rail spur there. We had no ability to ship by rail or the major highways to Texas from Reynosa and Monterrey,” Matt Hammond said. “There are more materials in the Southwest that we don’t have a business case for logistically. It allows us to avoid having to deal with shipping things south and north. It gives us another opportunity to be more competitive on costs.”

Matt Hammond credits strong customer relationships here with creating opportunities in Texas.

“By moving to McAllen, we found there are a number of (Grand Rapids)-based companies that are in McAllen and Reynosa — more than we realized at first. The decision makers are here, and we have relationships with them. We want to continue to provide U.S. jobs, and this is a way to do that,” Matt Hammond said. “Our customers here have been happy with our service, and they moved to a new (area) and are trying to figure out that network. We close the loop now for them. They now don’t have to go and find a recycler.”

Additionally, the city of McAllen recently began promoting green construction among businesses in the region, providing an opportunity for Bata to help share its expertise both in greening operations and with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED building standards. Bata’s Grand Rapids facility is certified LEED Silver, somewhat a rarity for a manufacturing facility.

  Order Reprints

TAGS:

• bata plastics
• grand rapids
• lee hammond
• matt hammond
• mcallen
• reynosa