Company success story: Nolato Contour

Products: Nolato Contour is a precision plastic and silicone injection molding company that produces and supplies plastic components and finished medical devices to major medical and pharmaceutical companies in the U.S.

Location: Baldwin, Wisconsin

Employees: Currently 160, with 62 new full-time positions being added in an expansion

Leadership: Russell Steele, president/managing director

Market: Nolato Contour provides polymer-based solutions for the medical device, pharmaceutical and hygiene industries. The company is focused on delivering innovative development and operational solutions followed by excellence in execution of long-term volume production of components and devices. Its customers are leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that require medical device and pharmaceutical plastic and silicone injection-molded products as components, related assembly, and finished medical devices. Nolato’s focus is on a few targeted customers in North America whose requirements are consistent with its value proposition and provide long-term volume opportunities.

Business success: The acquisition of Contour Plastics for $22 million allowed Nolato to establish a North American production base. Now called Nolato Contour, the company is embarking on another expansion and plans to add more than 27,000 square feet to its facility—two 5,000-square-foot cleanrooms plus additional space for material handling and warehousing. To support this expansion, Nolato’s Wisconsin facility expects to add 62 new full-time positions in addition to the current 160 full-time employees.

Wisconsin business environment benefits: As an incentive for Nolato’s planned capital investment of $17.9 million as well as the planned job creation, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is providing the company with $250,000 in performance-based tax credits, contingent on actual capital investment and job creation. In addition, Nolato was drawn to Wisconsin’s strong manufacturing sector, supported by a favorable tax environment and workforce development and training investments.

“As in many areas of the country, workers are scarce, but Wisconsin is actively building links between the education system and employers,” said Steele. “Nolato is an enthusiastic participant in the Career Cruising/Inspire program for middle school and high school students. In addition, the willingness of the technical colleges to listen and provide focused training and internships is powerful. Along with the superior quality of engineering graduates from UW-Stout, all of these factors have led us to the decision that Wisconsin is the right place to grow and expand.”