YAKIMA, Wash. (November 2, 2009) – One of North America's leading extruders of plastic profile for the aerospace and transportation industries announced a new corporate identity and reported positive indications for growth. The former Filtrona Extrusion and its A&B Plastics business are now Pexco. The company's Aerospace Center of Excellence is located in Yakima, Wash.
Pexco produces extruded plastic components such as light diffusers and environmental control systems on Boeing aircraft. In addition to extrusion, Pexco's capabilities include sub-assembly, machining, water-jet cutting, heat forming, close tolerance cutting, printing and special packaging. Pexco also manufactures components for public transportation vehicles and automotive airbag systems.
"We believe that Pexco is well-positioned to prosper as conditions improve. We have worked hard through the downturn to protect our resources – both equipment and people – and now we are ideally placed to grow as the market begins to pick up," said Pexco CEO Neil Shillingford.
Maintaining Focus on Aerospace
Pexco works closely with Boeing and its subcontractors to reduce weight, lower costs and improve efficiency. "During the development of the 787 we were able to incorporate many of the secondary operations that Boeing previously did internally, thereby greatly reducing their costs," said Jim Widhalm, Vice President of Sales, Aerospace. "On the current model planes we reduced their inventory and eliminated their need to order parts. Now the parts are delivered based on Boeing’s usage and arrive just in time and ready to install," he added.
By developing expertise beyond plastic extrusion to include complex finishing operations, Pexco has provided additional value for its major aerospace customer. "Boeing was able to reduce labor, cost, scrap and inventory on the 787 by utilizing Pexco as a finished component supplier. On previous planes we supplied raw stock; now we are supplying finished components," said Widhalm.
According to Shillingford, Pexco will maintain its focus on the aerospace market. "We have succeeded – and will continue to succeed – because of our in-depth understanding of the market. This gives us the ability to design, manufacture and deliver to exacting standards, and to make positive contributions to supply chain management," he said.
New Corporate Identity
Pexco, which has been the brand name of the company's medical tubing products, chose its new name to emphasize a unified approach across multiple markets and production sites. "The new Pexco identity focuses on creatively working with customers to help solve their challenges – from highly technical engineering solutions to taking advantage of our manufacturing capability across seven plants in North America," said Shillingford.
About Pexco
Based in Atlanta and with seven plants in the United States and Mexico, Pexco is a North American leader in the design and fabrication of extruded plastics products. It provides standard and custom parts and components to manufacturers and end-users in the aerospace, retail, traffic safety, medical, lighting and fence industries. Pexco also offers a full range of custom design, engineering and fabrication services. Pexco meets the requirements of ISO 9001:2000, holds ISO 14001 registration for all of its manufacturing operations and operates two class 100,000 clean rooms. For more information, visit www.pexco.com.
