THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501270221
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Business
SOURCE: BY CAROLE O'KEEFFE, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
VIRGINIA DESIGN Packaging Corp., which opened in Suffolk in 1987, is in the middle of a $2 million expansion.
While the company previously has added equipment in its original 65,000 square feet of manufacturing space at its Wilroy Industrial Park location, this is the first time it has added work space.
Virginia Design Packaging makes plastic containers and lids from molten plastic and then prints label information and decorations on them. It also manufacturers peanut-shaped foam packing material.
Some area customers include Smithfield Packing, Gwaltney, Smithfield Ham and Products, Nestle Beverage Co., QVC, Doughties Barbeque, the Bamboo Hut restaurants and Unisource. Some customers farther away are Tysons Foods, with plants in Virginia, North Carolina and Texas; and Con Agra Poultry, with plants in Alabama and Georgia. Also Lundy's Packing Co. in North Carolina.
The company was founded here when Lee D. Goldstein, president, and his son, Larry A. Goldstein, found Suffolk and Wilroy Park.
They chose Suffolk because of ``the quality of the labor force, the proximity of customers and the quality of life down here,'' Larry Goldstein said. He is executive vice president of the company, formerly vice president of sales.
The family is originally from the Boston area, where Lee Goldstein had worked with a company similar to Virginia Design. His daughter, Lisa, also works for the company here. She is director of sales and marketing.
When the company had been here a year, it employed 110. That number has increased to 156. When the expansion and additional equipment are put into operation, the number will be increased by another 14 or so, Larry Goldstein said.
The new, 42,000 square foot section will house the company's growing printing operation, make room for additional injection molding machines and increase warehouse space.
Two printing machines have been added. One is an eight-color, 500 cup per minute printer.
Additional molding machines will be installed later this year, Larry Goldstein said.
To form the plastic cups and lids, polyethylene is heated to about 550 degrees and injected into molds where it is formed and cooled. The finished products are recyclable in the same category as plastic milk bottles.
The peanut-shaped packing pellets are made from 97 percent recycled polystyrene.
Virginia Design Packaging has additional property at 1401 Progress Road. If business continues as it has, Goldstein said, the next expansion could begin in as few as three years.
The area under construction will be finished and operating in April. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by MICHAEL KESTNER
Larry Goldstein, here with his sister, Lisa, says more employees
will be added after the expansion.
Some of the containers manufactured at the plant.
by CNB