"Vantage Plastics, Inc. is entering our 28th year as a business. We started in Standish, and I usually explain what we do in terms of consumer products—we make things like wading pools for kids and utility sleds, and direct to market products like hunting blinds. For businesses, we make things like returnable packaging, thermoformed pallets and so on.
We chose Bangor Township for our new manufacturing site because we have a customer that needed significant growth. This was a big project that came our way, and to pull it off, we needed more energy. We looked all over at places outside of Michigan, on the west coast, and places on the Gulf coast.
But while we were looking at properties, we saw one in Bangor Township. The big advantage was it was close to our Standish headquarters and 325,000 square feet. The disadvantage was that it had been abandoned for 20 years. All those years of neglect were obvious and on the first walk through, you needed a lot of imagination to see its potential.
To figure out how to make it work, we needed help, so we reached out to a friend who got us in contact with State Representative Timmy Beson. He put us in touch with Bangor Charter Township Supervisor Glenn Rowley, who connected us with Bay Future, Inc. and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. On our first meeting with Bay Future, they brought in Brenda from the MEDC and we explained a little bit about what we wanted to do, and then they started talking. Paul and I were sitting there thinking, ‘We don’t understand what they’re saying, but it sounds good!” and let them run with it. I’m a manufacturing guy and there’s just too much for one person to know all on their own. Bay Future was knowledgeable, positive, and very helpful with the ‘How do we do this?’ part, and helped us figure out how to move forward.
The estimate is that with the new facility in Bangor Township, we will create about 93 additional jobs within the next couple of years, and we're at about 325 right now. We're looking for staff from top to bottom: operators, janitors, technicians, office help, supervisors, shipping and receiving—everything that goes into operating the facility.”
– Paul Aultman and Don Hale, Vantage Plastics
To apply for a position at Vantage Plastics, head to https://www.vantageplastics.com/careers/
“In the fall of 1996, we started Vantage Plastics, and the first year was a humbling year: we had six employees and started out with zero work. But by the end of the year, we built up $1.6 million in sales. Our original office in Standish was a trailer on stilts with a family of raccoons in the walls, so we weren’t too phased about having to renovate our new location in Bangor Township when we first saw how neglected it was after being abandoned for 20 years.
There's two sides to manufacturing, there's the building and then there's the ability to get in there and start running products. We've got nine injection molding machines in the new facility now running product, but we won’t be fully operational until we handle some more construction first. The overall plan is to be fully up and running by next summer.
The estimate out of the gates is about 93 additional jobs within the next couple of years. And we're at about 325 right now. We're looking for staff from top to bottom: operators, janitors, technicians, office help, supervisors, shipping and receiving – everything that goes in the facility.
When you look into the future, you have to look at ‘What do we want to do?’ and ‘When do we need to do it’ to be successful. To see a site operating and the pounds of plastic going in and out, with everything running smoothly, that’s what I enjoy.”
– Paul Aultman and Don Hale, Vantage Plastics, Inc.
“Well, I love growing things and helping people. Our mission is forming solutions, forming better lives, forming sustainable futures. Our mission is forming better lives for individuals that work at Vantage Plastics, Inc. and for each other as a group of colleagues working together, a family. We're a solutions-based company so we’re always looking for answers, and our favorite thing to do is to find a solution for a problem that somebody doesn't even know exists yet. They haven't recognized the problem yet, but we've got a solution for it.
Sustainable futures, that's the long-term plan. We are not a corporate group of companies—we're a family-owned group of companies. So when we're planning for 10 years out, we’re not to get a stockholder return this year at the risk of more challenging years ahead.
We have something called WELLS Outreach that stands for Weaving Effective Leadership and Life Skills, and it's about empowering individuals, empowering family, empowering community. It’s a big thing we do up in Standish and Arenac County, and that will be the same thing we do down here. We're also in public/private consortium—one of only seven companies in the nation—where we are partnering with the Health Department to see if we can help them get closer to individuals that might have needs. One of the big initiatives has been trying to coordinate child care because it’s such a big issue for everyone.
It's more than just giving people a place to work: it’s about helping people in their lives and helping communities.”
– Paul Aultman, President, Vantage Plastics, Inc.
