Growing firm plans new plastics plant

Andersen Plastics Inc. purchased a $1.1 million Brush Prairie industrial site Wednesday, saying 20 to 30 people could start work manufacturing milk jugs there this year.

The company needs to expand quickly to meet high demand for its products, said Fred Abraham, railroad coordinator for Clark County-owned Chelatchie Prairie railroad, which serves Andersen Plastics.

A spin-off of Battle Ground’s longtime Main Street fixture, Andersen Dairy, Andersen Plastics Inc. has become the town’s largest employer, supporting a payroll of 230 people at its headquarters at 15 N.E. Grace Ave.

But long-term plans are unclear for the milk-jug maker, which must leave its main location to make way for city street improvements.

The company is too precious to lose, said Mike Ciraulo, Battle Ground mayor.

“Frankly, it would be devastating to the city,” he said.

The plastics company, which makes and sells milk bottles to dairies throughout the Pacific Northwest, is out of expansion room at its two-building Grace Avenue site, next door to Al & Ernie’s Foodliner.

Reliant on rail

Abraham said the manufacturing operation depends on railroad accessibility, which is why Andersen Plastics chose to purchase the 5.2-acre satellite facility from Mike Massie. The site, which has a ready-to-use 12,000-square-foot building, formerly housed a Centex feed store that served Brush Prairie, one of Clark County’s most rapidly developing rural communities.

Jack Dunn, president of Andersen Plastics, could not be reached for comment on Friday. However, Dunn has spoken freely about his company’s Brush Prairie expansion plans, regularly addressing groups such as the Greater Brush Prairie Neighborhood Association.

Abraham explained that it is less expensive for train cars to deliver the plastic pellets used as a base to make milk jugs. Finished products are shipped to customers by diesel-powered truck, a more expensive mode of transport.

“The (trains) are the key for them to be cost-effective in the marketplace,” Abraham said.

Among other obstacles in Battle Ground, Andersen Plastics’ Grace Avenue headquarters is a roadblock to the city’s plans to realign and extend Grace Avenue, a north-south street on the east end of downtown. Plans for the two-phase project would bring the street right through the plastics plant, Ciraulo said.

City officials have been working with Andersen Plastics to select another site within Battle Ground’s city limits.

“We will do whatever it takes to keep them in the city,” Ciraulo said.