AUSTINBURG TOWNSHIP — Piles of blue and green plastic tires and red race-car bodies fill the RTS Plastics Inc. factory floor as workers make the plastic parts of childhood dreams.
The Canadian company makes 200 parts for many industries, including for RTS Play, which markets an extensive product list of playground equipment.
“We are widely known as the company that makes the race-car shopping carts for large stores,” general manager Vickie Cegliastro said.
Growth Partnership Executive Director Joseph Mayernick hosted a tour Wednesday of RTS’ factory in the Coffee Creek Industrial Park, for U.S. Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Concord Township.
Mayernick said Growth Partnership helped usher RTS into the Coffee Creek Industrial Park after NEO Plastics went into receivership.
“This was quite a process, bringing RTS here,” Mayernick said. “They almost didn’t make it to Austinburg Township. This almost didn’t happen.”
Cegliastro said RTS, which used to manufacture wooden whiskey barrels a century ago, began making plastic barrels to save money. Those plastic barrels led to custom molding and plastic fabrication, a healthy industry harmed by the rising value of the Canadian dollar.
“We realized there was no way for us to keep molding in Canada, especially with the shipping rates to the U.S.,” Cegliastro said. “We needed an arm into the U.S.”
As RTS looked to the states for a plastics toehold, NEO Plastics went under.
“They were in a bad state of affairs, and we were in the middle of it. We had many of our molds here,” Cegliastro said. “We were ready to move the molds. I even had the trucks booked to pick them up.”
From that shaky ground, RTS took over operations at the plant, taking on the company’s 33 workers and hiring three more. Celiastro said the company hopes to make money after the first year of operations and expects to improve the old NEO building and expand the facility and operations.
“In the next five years, we expect to double our employment here,” she said.
Mayernick says Growth Partnership helped retain the jobs at the plant and is pleased to have a new growing company in the industrial park.
“We are thrilled to have RTS here, and we are working to help you grow in Ashtabula County and throughout the U.S.,” Mayernick said.
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