Officials from locally based Red Star Contract Manufacturing Inc., which builds injection-molding machines and provides injection molding for medical customers nationwide, announced that the company is partnering with Warsaw Machinery Inc. to increase Red Star’s capacity to build injection molding machines.
“This partnership allows us to continue expanding our reach to serve medical device and plastics equipment customers,” states Red Star President, Scott Werstler, “Warsaw Machinery’s industry leading robotics and automation capabilities align with our machine building and medical device manufacturing.”
The partnership between Red Star and Warsaw Machinery will involve the companies aligning production capabilities to generate synergies that will increase machine building capacity. Red Star’s Werstler and Warsaw Machinery’s Larry Wettschurack and Rick Lawson worked together previously in rebuilding used molding machines and manufacturing new ones.
“We are quite happy to assist Red Star with its machine manufacturing,” states Wettschurack, president, Warsaw Machinery. “This partnership is a perfect fit with our company’s objectives.”
This announcement caps a year in which Red Star has made a number of significant advancements. In spring 2013, Red Star announced plans to expand its Larwill facility, add new equipment and create additional jobs, which was completed in summer 2013. Also in 2013, the company acquired the assets of contract grinding company Custom Surgical Products, Inc., which added new production technologies and positioned Red Star with 10 grinding machines at its Larwill facility to offer custom needle grinding services to its medical device customers.
Red Star continues to focus on vertically integrating the company’s capabilities to focus on customized, responsive injection molding for medical device customers. The company also maintains a unique focus on building its own machines, which reinforces Red Star’s ability to adapt to the needs of each customer with industry-leading customized equipment.
Red Star works with customers in California, Indiana, Michigan, and Texas from the company’s facility in Larwill. Red Star has been named “Supplier of the Year” by Texas-based Vidacare Corp. and is an ISO 13485-certified manufacturer.
Red Star representatives continue to participate in the EDC’s Small Business & Entrepreneurship Initiative, which has involved completion of the EDC facilitated FastTrac New Ventures program and approval of two Revolving Loan Fund awards to support expansion projects. In addition, the company has worked with Indiana Small Business Development Center and Elevate Ventures staff to receive ongoing coaching and mentoring.
Source: Whitley County Economic Development Corporation (EDC)