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A.M.A. Plastics Celebrates 25 Years of Service in 2007! A.M.A. Plastics was started by Allen Monsma in 1982, selling nursery containers from a small garage. He moved to a dirt floor warehouse shortly after and added to his product line, selling Blackmore Turbo Seeders all over the country, as well as plug trays, flats and inserts. Allen used to drive his little 4 pallet truck to Burton, Ohio on weekends, where Dick Bonner, founder of Dillen Products, would load him up so Allen could peddle more pots and baskets to his customers the next week. He and his wife, Shirley, also spent hours and hours filling plug trays and custom sowing for his customers. The business grew, and in 1991, he built a new, 6,000' warehouse at our current location, where he added 1 full time staff member to help in the office, along with 2 part time or seasonal people. He incorporated the company as A.M.A. Plastics Ltd. that year. A year later, he added another 6,000' to the warehouse. In 1992, Allen came up with Al's Flower Pouch and that led to a partnership in a bag manufacturing company in London, ON and incredible success as the popularity of Al's Flower Pouch exploded across the North American market. Allen thought he had it made and was so pleased with the way the business had developed. During those early years, Allen and Shirley were still running their bedding plant stand in Hamilton, ON from early May to Late June. In 1996, the greenhouse vegetable growers in Leamington were calling and Allen travelled to the Cultilene offices in The Netherlands during one of our family vacations there. He came back, explaining what he had planned to his daughter Connie Bradt and her husband Rick Bradt. Connie's question to Rick was "How is he going to do this all by himself?" Both Connie and Rick had there own successful careers well under way at that time. By October, 1996, A.M.A. was in the hydroponics business and Connie began working 20 - 30 hours per week to help out. Rick joined full time in June of the following year and before long another 19,000 sq ft was added to the warehouse. During this period, we began to sell Al's Flower Pouch around the world. The business grew as we added more product lines and more trucks and in 1999 along came Ellepots, at the urging of Skip Blackmore. By 2000, we needed another building to handle our Ellepot business and by 2005 we had outgrown that building. Fortunately, we had aquired a nearly new, 28,000 sq foot building next door to our main warehouse in 2004 and that became the new home of Ellepots by A.M.A.. But, we couldn't leave well enough alone so we added another 11,000 sq ft shipping area with new loading docks and joined the main warehouse and our new shipping area and in early 2006 began a much more efficient operation from one large 71,000 sq ft facility. A.M.A. Plastics is the only Ellepot producer of its size and scale in North America and in fact, one of the largest producers worldwide. Well, we didn't have enough on our plates by 2006, so we launched A.M.A. Hydroponics to allow us to do a better job serving our growing hydroponics supply business. It was the 10th anniversary of our partnership with Cultilene. We've also strengthened our relationships with our twine and clip suppliers, Deleco b.v. and Lankhorst. We have a dedicated representative handling our hydroponics business now and over the course of 2007, there will be more news to report as we carry out our new business plan for A.M.A. Hydroponics. In 2006 we also formed a property company called A.M.A. Properties and invested in our first commercial building just down the street from our main location - a recently built, 30,000 sq ft manufacturing facility with room to expand - we'll keep you posted. It's a great story, and we're so happy and thankful to have an opportunity to tell it. We have a great staff here. There are 17 of us in all full time and several part time and seasonal people to help out. We thank our customers, so many of whom, have been supporting us from the very early days and welcome those who have joined us more recently. We can't be here without our customers. Thanks also go to our suppliers, who have been so supportive over the years. And from Connie & Rick, thanks to Allen and Shirley, who gave us all the rope we needed to get the job done every day, and more opportunity than we could have dreamt of back in 1996. Feel free to call us. We're here to help. Containers, Equipment, Retail Mixes - Janan Alles, Dianna Manchester, Connie Bradt Ellepots by A.M.A., Pre-Fill, Professional Media, Fertilizers - John Vezina A.M.A. Hydroponics - Shawn Mallen Transportation & Warehousing - Terry Maiuri 
© 1997 - A.M.A. Plastics Ltd. |
