Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Workers trim calf shelters for the finished product at Agri-Plastics. Plant manager Brian Thies says they have 30 employees and expect to expand to 60 by fall.
In October 2017, Ontario, Canada-based Agri-Plastics announced it was investing $4.5 million in a new operation in Sidney. The new facility would be housed in 159,000 square feet of the building shared by LukJan Metal Products.
Now a few months into their enterprise, Agri-Plastics is expanding beyond what was first anticipated.
The Sidney location of Agri-Plastics specializes in calf shelters, plastic enclosures, made from molds with raw and recycled plastic. The primary plastic product is introduced in pellet form, similar to a air-soft pellets. It is then reduced to a powder before put into a mold to fashion the calf shelters.
Agri-Plastics currently has 30 employees and is expecting to expand to 60 within the next few months, according to Plant Manager Brian Thies. He said the community has a "really good work force."
"If you're good with hand tools, that's the main thing," Thies said regarding skills needed with new employees.
He added the biggest quality the company wants is employees who will commit 110 percent to the job.
Agri-Plastics is adding an extruder, a machine that adds color to the plastic product before it is sent to the mold. A second robotic machine will be added this fall that will cut the shelters. Scrap plastic from the process is added to the pulverizer, the machine that reduces pellets to dust, saving cost and further using the plastic product.
"There's going to be a lot of potential for this company," he said.
According to an October 2017 article in "Trade & Industry Development," the Nebraska Department of Economic Development's recruitment team built a relationship with Agri-Plastics while attending the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin. Agri-Plastics later expressed interest in the Interstate 80 corridor near the dairy industry of the mountain states and the Upper Midwest. Department of Economic Development officials contacted Sidney's Economic Development office regarding available locations. In June 2017, officials toured the Commscope Building owned by Lukjan Metal Products, resulting in the sale of part of the 359,000 square foot building to Agri-Plastics.
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