By Michael Lauzon
CORRESPONDENT
Published: July 11, 2013 1:58 pm ET

Blow molding and filling equipment supplier W. Amsler Equipment Inc. has made its first major sale of electric blow molding machinery since it expanded its stake in the market a year and a half ago.
Amsler of Richmond Hill, Ontario, is now delivering four electric stretch-blow molders to Consolidated Container Co. LLC of Atlanta.
Amsler stepped up its marketing of electric stretch-blow machines for PET when a competitor, the former Mag-Plastic Machinery Inc. business in West Chester, Ohio, stopped producing electric machines in August 2011.
Heidi Amsler, sales and marketing manager, said her firm expanded its electric re-heat capabilities to handle up to six cavities. About 18 months ago Amsler appointed GMK Advisors Inc. to manage its sales in the United States and Caribbean as it expanded into the vacuum left by Mag-Plastic's departure from the market.
GMK has offices in Chicago and Hilton Head, S.C. It is owned by Tom Schneider and Bill O'Day. From 2003 to 2011 they were exclusive sales representatives for Mag-Plastics in West Chester, Ohio, and therefore are a good fit with Amsler's push in blow molding, according to Heidi Amsler.
W. Amsler is a private Canadian company founded by Werner Amsler in 1994. It claims its all-electric blow molders are more efficient than models with hydraulic clamps. Its linear machines can produce 10,000 bottles per hour and its rotary equipment can churn out up to 24,000 bottles per hour, the firm claims. It also offers auxiliary equipment such as bottle inspection units, air compressors, spin trimmers, vacuum conveyors and blow molds.
Consolidated Container runs about 60 plants in North America. In Plastics News' 2012 blow molders ranking, the company came in sixth largest in North America with blow molding sales of $737 million.
Mag-Plastic update
In 2012, the Ohio unit of Mag-Plastic changed its name to Aisa Industrial Automation North America Inc.
The name change reflects "the growing importance of support and sales of tube-making machinery from Aisa Automation Industrielle SA," explained Andreas Hitzig, managing director for Mag-Plastic Machinery SA, the Vouvry, Switzerland-based parent company.
Mag-Plastic and Aisa are both owned by SIH Group of Vouvry.
Aisa specializes in plastic tube making equipment, including laminates and seamless tubes, and related packaging machinery and engineering services for markets such as personal care.
Mag-Plastic also stopped making electric blow molding machinery in Vouvry. Hitzig declined to say why the Swiss parent and U.S. subsidiary got out of the electric stretch-blow PET business.