Mountain Top plant reopening next month

WRIGHT TWP. – A plastics manufacturing plant shut down in March will reopen and begin production soon, the new owner said.

Wilkes-Barre area businessman Chris Hackett purchased the assets of HPG International for $1.8 million on Friday, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Delaware.

A new company, i2M, Innovation 2 Manufacturing, will operate out of the facility on Oak Hill Road in the Crestwood Industrial Park.

“We are working to start shipping material from the facility in three and half weeks from today,” Hackett said Wednesday.

Applications for employment are available through his One Source Staffing Solutions company. Up to 150 people could be hired as production picks up.

HPG filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January. It closed its Mountain Top facility in March, putting 170 people out of work. At the time the plant, which made pool liners and industrial roofing supplies, had orders to fill, but was unable to secure funds to buy raw materials.

“Customers have already been contacting us with orders,” said Bernard Rawlings, i2M’s vice president of sales, in a press release.

The orders will determine the start up times for production lines. “This customer-first commitment will be a hallmark of our new way of doing business,” Rawlings said.