Sterling Plastics Co. Expands To Devens
Against a background of a still-struggling manufacturing industry, Sterling plastic bag-maker Laddawn Inc. is opening new offices in Devens.
Laddawn, which has manufacturing operations in Sterling and several other locations around the country, recently purchased the 10,000-square-foot former Devens Davis Library for $525,000. But company co-president Ladd Lavallee said Laddawn is not reducing its approximately 90-person workforce in Sterling, and will actually add both manufacturing and office jobs there as well.
“While Sterling is perfect for manufacturing, it was less practical to expand our office as much as we needed to there,” Lavallee said.
Laddawn, a 34-year-old family business that changed its name from Northeast Poly Bag in 2000, makes plastic films and bags for industrial, food, medical and institutional uses. It has plants and warehouses in Texas, Nevada, Iowa and Georgia.
Regional Competition
The relationship between the former Fort Devens and its neighbors in North Central Massachusetts has sometimes been tense as some worried the state was pushing development in Devens at the expense of other local communities. But Walter Sanders, chair of the Sterling Industrial Development Commission, said the community is just happy to see Laddawn doing well.
“They are the quintessential success story,” Sanders said. “They’ve expanded so much they’ve outgrown the office space they have in Sterling.”
Sanders said the company occupies more than 100,000 square feet in Sterling.
Lavallee said the company didn’t receive any special incentives to expand in Devens, and ended up there because it wanted to expand quickly and found an appropriate space in the old library.
Lavallee said the company is expanding in Massachusetts partly because of a commitment to its long-time local employees but also because of the quality of the state’s workforce.
“In many ways I think Massachusetts gets a bad rap,” he said.
Lavallee said when the company runs Help Wanted ads it gets highly qualified applicants, both for factory-floor positions that require a knowledge of computers and for office jobs like sales and accounting.
Lavallee said the company has also deliberately chosen to do all its manufacturing within the United States, partly because that helps it sell its product.
“Price is an important factor for every one of our customers, but we find that it’s far from the only factor,” he said.
The company has not yet determined exactly what jobs it will move to Devens and which will stay in Sterling.
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