Plastics processor Plastiques du Val de Loire (Plastivaloire, Langeais / France; www.groupe-plastivaloire.com) has chosen San Luis Potosí / Mexico as the site of its first plant in the Americas. "The location is situated in the heart of a region home to several automotive assembly plants," CEO Patrick Findeling said. At the same time, the company set up a new subsidiary, Plastivaloire Mexico. The plant is to start production at the end of this year, and the company intends to ramp up to full output during the course of 2017. To date, the plastics processor with 26 plants has been operating solely in Europe, in addition to a plant each in Turkey and Tunisia.

Plastivaloire has reported promising results for the first six months of the ongoing financial year, which ends on 30 September. Including consolidated acquisitions – such as Karl Hess (see Plasteurope.com of 17.12.2014) – group sales rose by 24.2% to EUR 285.3m. Excluding all recent purchases, the year-on-year gains came to almost 17%.

About 70% of total revenues were generated by the automotive business, which posted year-on-year gains of 22%. Sales in eastern Europe and France were particularly strong. The group’s smaller, non-automotive business division – comprising plugs, parts for small household appliances and the like – saw gains of 50%. Findeling expects sales for the entire financial year to reach more than EUR 540m, with an EBITDA margin of 10% and more.