Mold and tooling makers ranking by Plastics News for 2024 | Plastics News

Our updated North American mold makers ranking hits our latest issue with 139 firms representing $3.07 billion in 2023 sales. The average sales per company is up 5 percent over the previous year.

While most companies reported little or no change, 22 percent did report gains. That was enough to push up the grand total.

Most notable are the acquisitions. Adler Industrial Solutions Inc. combined Pinnacle Molds, Rapid Mold Solutions and R&D/Leverage. Berry Global Group Inc. picked up F&S Tool Inc., and Aarkel Tool and Die Inc. acquired Injection Technologies Inc. See all the mold-tooling news at www.plasticsnews.com/topic/molds-tooling.

Also in the news, German auto supplier Grammer AG has sold Toledo Molding & Die Inc. just six years after buying it.

Other numbers of note:

• Michigan (38), Ontario (26) and Wisconsin (22) are the top locations for mold making facilities.

• The six biggest gains totaled $115 million.

• 10,335 employees were counted for 131 respondents.

• Five companies are publicly held.

• NextGen Mold Technologies Windsor Inc. in Windsor, Ontario, moved up 23 spaces to rank at No. 53.

• Adler Industrial Solutions Inc. in Lee's Summit, Mo., moved up 22 spaces to rank at No. 15.

• Berry Global Tooling Services in Evansville, Ind., moved up 19 spaces to rank at No. 15.

• Creative Blow Mold Tooling Inc. in Lee's Summit, Mo., moved up 15 spaces to rank at No. 67.

• Crescent Industries Inc. in New Freedom, Pa., moved up 14 spaces to rank at No. 118.

• Apollo Tool Inc. in Westfield, Wis., moved up 13 spaces to rank at No. 52.

• Diversified Mold & Castings in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, moved up nine spaces to rank at No. 83.

If it seems like there are fewer listings this year, you are correct. We've combined the three listings that are part of Medbio LLC as well as the consolidations from the acquisitions above. Adding United Tool and Mold Inc. of Liberty, S.C., brings this year's class to 139.

You'll find a few more listed in the online version of this ranking, as we've confirmed contact information but do not yet have operational details.

In this blog back in 2020, I asked, "Are mold makers a vision of the future?" As molds and tooling are produced ahead of products, it seemed reasonable to posit that one result influences another.

Anecdotally, there seems to be a small correlation between the results of our mold makers survey and our injection molders results; our ranking includes more than injection tooling, but injection molds do top any other type of mold by more than double.

In our rankings, 2022 mold making sales were up 3 percent, and for the following fiscal period, 2023, injection molding was up 4.5 percent, all while the other processes showed slight declines.

If there is any merit to this nonscientific indicator, then injection molders should finish in 2024 with a 5 percent gain. But we'll just have to wait and see.

The full listing is available to view online at www.plasticsnews.com/mold-makers. Downloads of the MS Excel versions of our rankings and lists require an All-Access subscription. Sign up at www.plasticsnews.com/subscribe.

What's in the download? All the data as collected, including sales breakouts, mold types, end markets and each company's related plant location details. These downloads are in MS Excel format.

If you work for a company that is missing from the ranking, then we would like to include you next time. Please contact Hollee Keller at [email protected].

Hollee Keller is the editorial research coordinator for Plastics News and author of the All Things Data blog. Follow her on LinkedIn.

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