July 1, 2016 Updated 7/1/2016
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Michael A. Marcotte Lindsey Hahn speaks at the Executive Forum earlier this year.
Metro Plastics Technologies Inc. is investing $ 6 million to build a new 72,000-square-foot headquarters factory in its hometown of Noblesville, Ind.
As the company grows, officials can add another 40,000 square feet at the site.
“This investment modernizes our facility, improves our efficiency and allows for future expansion,” CEO Lindsey Hahn said.
Hahn said construction should begin this fall and be completed by next summer. Construction should cost $ 5 million. The custom injection molder expects to spend another $ 1 million to equip the new building with infrastructure for molding, including a material handling system and overhead cranes.
Metro runs 22 Nissei injection molding presses, in clamping forces ranging from 40-720 tons. The company has standardized on Nissei presses and Yushin robots.
Metro President Ken Hahn, Lindsey Hahn’s son, said the company will replace some of its older Nissei machines when the business moves, but the exact number has not been determined yet.
Metro has operated in its current plant for 35 years. Over the years, the company has expanded the factory from 14,000 square feet to its current size of 55,000 square feet. The current building has no room for expansion, Lindsey Hahn said.
“We’ve had double-digit growth over the last two or three years,” he said. “We’ve been focusing on improving our operation, updating equipment and adding robots. We’ve kind of done everything that we can do at this location, so we’re ready to move to the next phase.”
The new building will have a three-ton crane over the small-tonnage machines and a seven-ton crane over the larger machines. The existing building does not have cranes.
The new factory is just two miles from the current plant, so the company will retain its 93 employees. Hahn said that was an important consideration — as well as the fact that his family has roots in the Indianapolis area.
“Ken’s built such a good team over the last two or three years, we’ve got the best staffing we’ve ever had, so that gives us the confidence to move ahead with this type of investment,” said Lindsey Hahn, who is handing off the company baton to his son. Ken Hahn has been running the company for the last two years. “We wouldn’t’ be making this type of major investment if we didn’t feel really strong about our people.”
Lindsey Hahn founded the molder in 1975.
He said the city of Noblesville helped Metro find the land — a total of 34.6 acres — in an industrial park. Metro expects to use 7.3 acres for its new headquarters factory, and subdivide the rest of the land for resale.
The city is building an access street to the area, and installing water and sewer infrastructure.
Metro officials plan to close on the purchase of the land within 30 days, according to Lindsey Hahn.
Metro is family owned, and employs five members of the Hahn family: Lindsey and Ken; Lindsey’s wife, Lynne Hahn, the executive vice president; their daughter Carole Krol, corporate secretary; and her husband, Tom Krol, sales and marketing manager.
Lindsey Hahn said a strong customer base also is important to the location in Noblesville. “We ship all over the world, but a lot of our customers are based in the Midwest. Those relationships are very important to us, and that’ll keep us in the Midwest,” he said.
