Thermoforming manufacturer Vantage Plastics (vantageplastics.com) and injection molding firm Lotis Technologies (lotistechnologies.com) are proud to announce an affiliation that brings together two of Michigan’s leading plastics processors. While each company has specialized in returnable packaging and material handling solutions, this affiliation will broaden the markets to which plastic product solutions can be offered.
“The two companies are ideally suited for each other,” says Vantage Plastics owner Paul Aultman. “Our individual expertise, when brought together, creates a company uniquely suited to satisfy the needs of existing customers while also strengthening us for growth into new markets.”
“We could not have found a better company to affiliate with,” says Lotis Technologies executive Gary Lovins. “Vantage is known nationally for their thermoforming expertise, while we are leaders in custom engineered injection molded returnable packaging.”
According to Aultman, the advantages of the affiliation include:
- Improved purchasing and operational efficiencies
- Shared knowledge and expertise
- Complementary and expanded services to offer existing customers and new prospective clients
Under the terms of the affiliation, the companies will maintain their separate headquarters and staffs. Vantage Plastics is located in Standish, Michigan while Lotis Technologies is in Lake Orion, Michigan. Both companies are privately held and will retain existing executives.
Founded in 1996, Vantage Plastics provides thermoforming to a wide range of industries, including automotive, food processing, transportation, agriculture, medical, government, and others. Thermoforming is a manufacturing process in which a plastic sheet is heated to a pliable temperature, formed to the shape of a specific mold, and trimmed to create a usable product.
Vantage Plastics specializes in heavy gauge cut-sheet custom thermoforming. This process allows for making a wide range of larger robust products ranging from consumers goods such as sleds, kayaks, and kiddie pools to robust reusable and recyclable material handling items like pallets, trays, dunnage, sleeve packs, agricultural equipment and more.
Vantage’s strengths include being a “one stop-shop” as it is innovative and vertically integrated. Vantage provides in-house custom design, engineering, tooling, sheet extrusion, manufacturing, product verification, warehousing, and shipping all under one roof.
The Vantage Plastics family of companies also includes Edge Material Management, which guarantees to buy back any product made by Vantage for its material value so it can be recycled and used to make new products. Edge Material Management also buys post-industrial plastics on the open market to help improve customer material costs and keep a sustainable environment. Vantage Plastics is truly becoming one of the countries most innovative and vertically integrated plastics processors.
Vantage Plastics clients include many well-known Fortune 500 companies as it has been on a steady growth trajectory. The company employs over 230 people at its 250,000 square foot facilities and had roughly $40,000,000 in sales during 2020.
Lotis Technologies was established in 2005 with the purpose of supporting the returnable packaging industry. The company manufactures stacking columns, seat pallets, shipping trays, automated trays, rack dunnage and more.
Lotis Technologies is known for its expertise in design and knowledge of the nuances associated with successful injection-molded product outcomes. This brings great value to clients as Lotis is able to provide a very positive experience for their clientele.
“Our customers have seen significant cost savings in switching from expendable packaging to returnable/reusable plastic packaging,” says Lotis co-owner Gary Lovins. “We have engineered a variety of solutions ranging from complex robotically loaded and unloaded seat pallets and automated trays to simple pieces of rack dunnage with great success.”
Lotis also provides stacking column solutions. Stacking columns provide a fully automatic system with increased storage capacity while maintaining part-separation. Applications include shipping racks, WIP racks, line side buffering and many LCA systems.
Lotis offers engineering, prototyping, tooling, and production all in-house. To support its design services, the company features lab equipment, gauges and fixtures, assembly fixtures and steel-to-injection evaluation. Prototyping is supported with mechanical assemblies, 3D printing of various materials, case urethane prototypes and machined CNC prototypes.
The Vantage-Lotis affiliation officially went into effect on April 15, 2021. Officials with both companies are eager to see the results.
“Every day in manufacturing facilities across this nation there are millions of parts that are in constant need to be received, assembled, moved, and created,” says Paul Aultman. “With this affiliation, we will be able to create products that are durable, reusable, customizable, lightweight, suitable for any environment, and recyclable. We can’t wait.”
For more information about the Vantage Plastics-Lotis Technologies affiliation, call Paul Aultman at (989) 846-1029 or Gary Lovins at (248) 340-6065 or email sales@vantageplastics.com
