Our History
Sussex IM Timeline
1977
1977, The Beginning: Our story begins with Lorand Spyers-Duran, an ambitious Hungarian immigrant. He came to our shores in 1956 and settled in Sussex, WI and worked for Hartland Plastics. An eager entrepreneur, he left Hartland to form the company that would become our corporate DNA’s point of origination.
Lorand and three partners formed Sussex Plastics, Inc. here in Sussex. The four partners secured auctions in search of production equipment. In short order, they secured used-but-servicable machinery and set up shop.
SPI’s first purchase orders came from Liquid Metronics (LMI) for metering pumps and ancillary components. Over forty years later, those products are still made by Sussex IM.
1980
1980’s, Blow Molding Takes Off: And the company four-decade tradition of expertise begins with Blow Molding- vastly different from injection molding. A hot tube of plastic drops down between the mold halves. The mold closes and air is blown into the mold to form a hollow part. The first part, Candy Cane handles. As many as 14 million, running year-round.
SPI also added on 40,000 square feet of capacity, including office space, warehousing and manufacturing specifically to handle this surge in demand.
In 1987, we were named Avon’s Supplier of the Year. “Quite an honor, for a 10 year old company, that is.”
1990
1990’s, Bigger & Better: The company added on another 45,000 square feet for offices, warehousing and manufacturing. In addition, silos were added to house resin.
By the end of the decade, the company was acquired by Rexam, the $6 billion multinational packaging behemoth.
2000
2000’s, Innovation to Grow: The company’s customers faced an “innovate-or-die” competitive environment. The customer-centric firm anticipated this landscape, and built its bleeding-edge, 10,000 square foot Innovation Center.
In addition to the Innovation Center, the company integrated its state-of-the-art Motan System; and for enhanced comfort and productivity, air conditioned the manufacturing plant.
2010
2010, Sussex IM Purchase: Due to the ‘08-’09 recession, Rexam was in the process of shutting down/consolidating plants. 3 employees from the management team: Phil Salzman, Keith Everson, and Dave Guagliardo had the opportunity to buy back the business and ended up saving approximately 220 jobs. The company was returned to its core values and Sussex IM (Injection Molding) Inc. was formed in 2010.
As a result, a long run of annual double-digit growth continues to this very day. Another plant expansion took place, this one for 12,000 square feet. Further, Sussex IM South – our Advanced Manufacturing Facility- is planned at 86,000 square feet to further customer satisfaction for increased capacity and streamlined pellet to pallet work-flow schemes.
2020
2020’s, New Look & New Opportunities: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sussex IM received a surge in demand in the Health & Hygiene market. This increased demand led to Sussex’s expansion into the medical market with the addition of an ISO Class 8 Clean Room. As Sussex continues to expand and evolve into different markets, a rebrand took place to help portray our vibrant culture and our modern technology.
Sussex also invested in an addition to the Advanced Manufacturing Facility of an extra 71,000 sq. ft. for manufacturing and temperature-controlled warehousing space.
Sussex IM received the 2019 Supplier Innovator of the Year from Gojo Industries.
