A Crawfordsville manufacturer is setting the bar high throughout the world. For the second consecutive month, Closure Systems International has broken the world record for the total number of closures produced in a month.
More than 1.53 billion plastic closures were made in May, breaking the factory’s April world record of more than 1.48 billion.
Plant Manager Carlos Espinoza said the reason the local manufacturer is breaking world records is two-fold. First, it starts with dedicated employees who average producing more than 4 million closures every day.
“We have 350 great employees,” Espinoza said. “They work very hard and take pride in what they do.”
A second factor is the warm weather.
"Our closures are on water, carbonated beverages and other products like sports drinks,” he said.
Warm temperatures always drives up demand for the caps that go on carbonated drinks and water drinks. However this year, the demand has increased over previous summers. CSI employees are working around the clock, seven days a week to keep up with sales.
With total production numbers up, Espinoza said it is safe to say that anyone who opens a drink in a plastic bottle, it was likely made in Crawfordsville.
“Our plant serves basically every state in the Midwest to the East Coast,” Espinoza said. “If you open a drink, chances are great that we made the cap.”
More good news is on the horizon for the company once was known as Hoosier Crown Industries. The company plans to add yet another production line, which means the need for 27 additional workers. Espinoza said the new line will be running by the end of September.
Like all other manufacturers in Montgomery County, Espinoza admits it is a challenge to find employees due to the low employment rate. The manager said his company employs local workers and every county that touches Montgomery County. He said his plant leadership is always trying to come up with ideas to give their production workers a good working environment.
“We have a program that rewards our people,” Espinoza said. “If our managers see any of our workers on the production floor doing something extra or a good job, they pass out tokens on the spot. The tokens can be used to claim prizes in our company store.”
Espinoza said they are now working on bringing wireless internet for workers in the employee break room.
“We work at keeping our employees,” Espinoza said. “When we get a good employee we want to keep them.”
To celebrate the recent world records, CSI is treating the employees to appreciation dinners for the next two weeks. Each shift, as it rotates to days, will be served a meal featuring grilled hamburgers and hot dogs plus other items. The management team will serve up the lunches.
Also, the plant is sponsoring a family outing on Sugar Creek by paying for canoe rental, food and drinks.
Espinoza, who came to Montgomery County 18 months ago, has been a plant manager at four other CSI plants. The international company has production facilities in every part of the world including Europe, South America, Central America and China. The Crawfordsville plant is the company’s largest and the largest closure plant in the world. Pepsi and Coca Cola are CSI’s largest customers.