IML Containers' Innovation Noted with Venture Award
A Le Mars manufacturer that puts out millions of plastic package parts each week was honored with an Iowa Venture Award this week in Des Moines.
IML Containers Iowa Inc. was one of ten Iowa companies to receive this year's award from the Iowa Area Development Group (IADG) on behalf of Iowa's rural electric cooperatives and member municipal electric systems.
"In recognizing these companies, we honor vision, leadership, achievement and social responsibility," said IADG President, Rand M. Fisher, who noted this marks the 20th year the group has given out the award. "The stories we typically highlight are companies where people have shown courage and capability, and where they've transformed the organization, supported families and strengthened the local economy."
In choosing IML, the development group highlighted a combination of traits.
"It's their innovation, their passion for excellence, their investment in job creation," Fisher said.
IML Containers Iowa plant manager Steeve Vallée accepted the award at the Des Moines ceremony. "We are very proud of this honor," he said on Friday. "It's a good push on us to keep us going forward and it's a good opportunity for us to be seen by potential customers across the Midwest. This puts us out there on another level."
IML Containers Iowa, which started Le Mars production in 2006, is the first U.S. facility of the Lacroix Group, a family-owned company based in France. Running 24 hours a day, seven days a week with 16 employees, they produce plastic IML, or in-mold labeling, containers -- a process which cuts out an extra step of labeling because the labels are affixed during the molding process.
At the awards ceremony, IADG noted IML Container Iowa's state-of-the-art robotics and injection molding for companies like Wells' Dairy, Nestlé and Land of the Lakes, and the company's use of energy-efficient heating, cooling and lighting.
"We also singled out Neal Adler and the LBIC for their leadership," Fisher said. "Because of their continual help, it is quite likely the IML Containers Iowa will embark on a future expansion in 2008."
Vallée, who thanked Le Mars for being a great home for the company in his speech when receiving the award, said that the company owns a lot in the industrial park on the south end of Le Mars and indicated that they would be looking more closely at that expansion as the new year rolls out. "In 2008 we will also maybe add a new line," he said.
Lacroix Group has 12 facilities in Europe and one in Canada and now their first U.S. operation is located in Le Mars, Iowa.
North West Rural Electric Cooperative nominated IML Containers Iowa for the Venture Award. More than 160 Iowa companies have been honored with the awards since the IADG first began giving it out 20 years ago including several Le Mars businesses: Schuster Co. in 2005, Dykstra Dairy in 2002, BoDeans Baking in 2001 and SmithCo in 1998.
Other 2007 Venture Award winners include: Fluoro-Seal International, Mount Pleasant; Heartland Express Inc., North Liberty; Iowa Base, Inc., Ionia; Iowa Corn Processors, Glidden; Olderog Wholesale Tire, Inc., Holland; Menard, Inc, Shelby; Times-Citizen Communications, Iowa Falls; US Bio Albert City, Albert City; and the VeraSun Energy ethanol plant in Hartley, which was also nominated by North West REC.
The IADG does business and community development work for Iowa's rural power cooperatives like North West REC and NIPCO, as well as member municipal electric systems.
The Venture Awards were designed to honor leading Iowa businesses and industries who have chosen to locate and expand within the service territories of member-owned power cooperatives.
"It's our opportunity to showcase and spotlight entrepreneurial achievement," Fisher said.
Since 1985 the economic development efforts of IADG and their sponsoring utilities have helped create more than 37,000 jobs and $5.5 billion dollars of capital investment for Iowa.
