The White River Valley Herald

GW Plastics Begins Royalton Expansion

$10M Facility Complete by Fall


Workers from Engelberth prepare the building pad for GW Plastics’ latest manufacturing expansion in Royalton. Begun in April, the firm is expecting to have the 30,000-square foot building complete and operational by November. (Herald / Dylan Kelley)

Workers from Engelberth prepare the building pad for GW Plastics’ latest manufacturing expansion in Royalton. Begun in April, the firm is expecting to have the 30,000-square foot building complete and operational by November. (Herald / Dylan Kelley)

For the fifth time in its history, GW Plastics is expanding its operations in Royalton. Intended to increase capacity and keep pace with the growing market for medical device manufacturing and injection molding, the latest round of construction will include 17,000 square feet of additional warehouse space as well as a 13,000-square foot Class 8 cleanroom capable of housing dozens of injection molding machines.

According to GW Plastics CEO Brenan Riehl, the build—which began earlier this spring through the Colchester-based Engelberth Construction firm—will be finished this fall. The company is planning on bringing the facilities to full operational capacity in early 2020. “The expansion is being completed due to ongoing demand, primarily in the medical device market,” said Riehl. “It could be a variety of applications—like minimally invasive surgical instruments [and] drug delivery systems.”

With a master Act 250 permit already in place and plenty of space to work with, Riehl said the timeline for the new facility would likely represent one of the company’s “largest, quickest, and fastest moving expansions—which we’re delighted about.”

Explaining the company’s process for determining where and when to expand, Riehl said that an enduring connection to GW’s locations within Vermont was a deciding factor in picking the Royalton location for the new building.

“We had looked at a number of different locations for the expansion,” he said. “This is where our headquarters is located, in Royalton and Bethel. It was probably not the most cost-effective place to expand as Vermont is a very expensive place to do business, but we do have a commitment to the community, commitment to the state and commitment to our people.”

Looking further ahead, Riehl said that, once business conditions warrant it, GW Plastics would likely expand its Bethel location into the recently purchased lot currently occupied by the former Valley Motors building.

“We bought the Valley Motors building a year ago, next door,” said Riehl explaining that, when the time is right, the Valley Motors building would be torn down. “Right now, we can’t expand in Bethel, but buying that building will allow us to do that down the road.”

Local Talent

With the new expansion underway, GW Plastics plans to bring on additional 30 workers, ranging from non-technical to technical positions, about 10 of which are already spoken for, Riehl said.

“When we started expanding outside of Vermont, its natural to think ‘what does this mean for me and my job security?’” said Riehl, recounting previous expansions. “What happened was that when we expanded outside of Vermont, more business came to Vermont.”

As a result of this, GW Plastics has leaned heavily on community partnerships with the Randolph Technical Career Center and Vermont Technical College to stock an appropriately skilled hiring pool.

“Our bias is local,” said Riehl of the hiring process. “What we’ve done is we’ve set up this ecosystem where we have the School of Tech, this very unique partnership with Vermont Tech where we offer a paid internship and a scholarship. We offer the students at Vermont Tech the [opportunity] to completely cover the cost of their tuition and then obviously get a job at GW upon graduation.”

This ongoing emphasis on maintaining roots in the White River Valley has been a central part of both the GW Plastics culture as well as the company’s ongoing success.

“We’re smack in the middle of the state in one of the more rural areas of the state—and we’re a high-tech manufacturer,” said Riehl. “That’s a pretty unique dynamic all by itself. We’re proud of that.”