Pittsburgh-based PPG marked the opening of a nearly $3 million expansion for packaging coatings manufacturing at its Oak Creek plant on Monday.
The company, which makes paint and coatings, added 3,300 square feet to the facility, which is already the largest the company has in the country and employs 550 people.
The addition will increase production capacity for food-can coatings to meet growing customer demand. PPG said its new generation of coatings are designed to help canmakers and brand owners meet increasing food-contact regulatory requirements. The expansion will provide greater flexibility to produce specialized solutions that meet those requirements.
“This expansion significantly increases our packaging coatings manufacturing capability in the U.S., enabling us to meet growing demand for our industry-leading food-can coatings,” said Ken West, PPG vice president, packaging coatings. “This investment shows PPG’s continuing commitment to the packaging industry, and it strengthens our ability to meet emerging customer requirements for innovative technological solutions.”
The expansion is the second addition the company has made to its Oak Creek plant in the last year. PPG opened a new application center in May. That 4,000-square-foot addition also cost about $3 million and was intended to help with the development of liquid coatings.
The Oak Creek plant is part of PPG’s industrial coatings segment, which had $5.69 billion in net sales in 2016, an increase of 8.8 percent.
