Ring Container Technologies LLC, a packaging manufacturer based in Oakland, Tenn., is set to open a new facility in Louisville later this month. 

Ring Container makes plastic bottles used primarily by the food industry — think peanut butter jars, mayo jars and snack containers for nuts and pretzels. Company officials decided to open a facility in Louisville to serve one of its major clients in the area, Algood Food Co., according to Brian Smith, senior vice president of supply chain and innovation for Ring Container.

It’s opening in about 125,000 square feet at the Jefferson Riverport International business park in Southwest Louisville. Algood Food also has operations in that business park.

Ring Container doesn’t have a hard date for opening, but officials plan to be manufacturing there before the end of September. The company uses a two-step process to make its products, Smith said. An injection-molding system is used to make a plastic preform. That preform then is taken to another machine, which heats it up and blows it into the shape of the bottle the customer needs. The location also will have a warehouse on site to store inventory.

This will be the company’s 19th facility. Most of its plants are in the U.S., but it also has operations in Canada and the the U.K.

“We’ll locate our manufacturing as close to [customers] as we can,” Smith said. “Now that we can manufacture there, there’s a lot of prospects” for potential new customers.

The plant will start with 22 employees, Smith said.

Ring Containers, owned by New York-based investment firm MSD Partners LP, has about 700 employees companywide. Its major clients include TreeHouse Foods Inc., Conagra Brands Inc. and The J.M. Smucker Co. 

Ring has been a fast-growing company of late, with  revenue rising to $431 million from $350 million in 2015. Smith says that figure now is on its way up to an estimated $475 million for 2018.

This article originally appeared in the 
Memphis Business Journal
and
Louisville Business First
.