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GW Plastics, joined by Ireland’s Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, announced an investment in excess of $6.8 million (€6 million) to its operations in Sligo, putting money into Avenue Mould and expanding its molding operations in country. “We intend to relocate Avenue’s clean room molding operation to our new molding facility—GW Plastics Sligo—and expand our tooling facility—Avenue Mould Solutions—once the molding operation has been relocated,” a company spokesperson told Plastics Technology,

At this time, Avenue Mould, which was founded in 1988 and specializes in multi-cavity injection molds and contract injection molding for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries, has a facility covering 32,000-ft². GW said it intends to grow those operations by 28,000-ft², in an expansion that will be scalable to more than 50,000-ft². Avenue Mould currently has 50 employees, GW Plastics’ goal is to expand employment to more than 200 once its investments are complete.

GW expects to have more than 20 injection molding machines following the initial expansion phase, with the ability to add more as ´óÏó´«Ã½ grows. GW Sligo will be a cleanroom molding operation, and while Avenue doesn’t currently offer LSR molding, GW is “exploring bringing the technology to GW Sligo,” according to the company spokesperson.

The project is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland. Prime Minister Varadkar said in a release that Sligo, in northwestern Ireland, is recognized as a major regional center and driver of economic development as part of the government’s national development plan, Project Ireland 2040. “The creation of new jobs by GW Plastics is great news for the company, its customers, staff, and prospective employees and is further evidence that Sligo is a great place in which to invest, work, and live,” Varadkar said.

GW Plastics has mold-building, injection molding and contract manufacturing capabilities across three continents in the United States, Ireland, Mexico, and China. (Read more about GW’s operations in Mexico; as well as recent investments in metal 3D printing and the acquisition of Avenue Mould).