Page 57 - Plastics News January 2023

BUSINESS NEWS

Illinois housewares molder Arrow moving to Stellantis to Build Electric
Mississippi VTOL Aircraft with Archer

Stellantis, a merger between Fiat
Chrysler and the French PSA
Group, and Archer Aviation have
agreed to significantly expand
their partnership by joining forces
rrow Home Products LLC is shoppers splurged on products like to manufacture Archer’s flagship
Amoving its plastic housewares the ones Arrow manufactures to bet- Midnight electric vertical take-off
manufacturing plant from Elk Grove ter organize their cupboards and pre- and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Stel-
Village, Ill., to the site of its distribu- pare more meals in their own kitch- lantis will work with the startup
tion facility in Durant, Miss. ens. to construct and equip Archer’s
Some of the 96 employees will also Arrow filled stores with reusable con- recently announced manufactur-
make the move, according to Human tainers and specialty items such as ing facility in Covington, GA. The
Resources Director Janice Labek. "sip-a-bowls" — bowls with built-in companies plan to begin manufac-
Others are facing layoffs that will be- straws for slurping out the last bit of turing the Midnight aircraft there
gin in March. cereal. in 2024.
Founded in 1961, Arrow manufac- However, in 2022, CEOs of large Midnight is designed to be safe,
tured 3,000 different products at one retailers, such as Target and Lowe's, sustainable, and quiet, stressed
time but pared those down to 300 warned of sales declines due to infla- Archer. Its expected payload of
kinds of cups, bowls and containers tion and a return to pre-lockdown over 1,000 pounds will allow the
in 2017 under the new ownership routines. Markdowns to reduce in- eVTOL to carry four passengers
of Deltech Holdings Inc., which also ventory also cut into profits and Tar- plus a pilot. With a range of 100
owns Deltech Corp., a Baton Rouge, get even cancelled some orders as it miles, Midnight is optimized for
La., supplier of monomers and poly- worked through excess stock. back-to-back short distance trips
mers. Public information about Arrow's of around 20 miles, and a charging
The goal was twofold: Expand Ar- pending closure doesn't offer any rea- time of approximately 10 minutes
row sales within the higher-value son prompting the decision and Labek in-between.
product areas of drinkware, hydra- said she couldn't comment any fur- This unique partnership in the
tion, kids and home food preparation, ther. urban air mobility industry will
serving and storage; and build name "We were doing distribution in Du-
recognition through retail chains like rant and now we'll be doing manufac- leverage each company’s respec-
Walmart, Target, Meijer and Rite Aid. turing and distribution," Labek said in tive strengths and competencies
Arrow promoted its U.S.-made prod- a phone interview. "All the workers to bring the Midnight aircraft to
market. Archer brings its team of
ucts on social media, including a 2019 who wish to move can. A couple will.
Facebook post supporting a cam- That's all I can tell you right now." eVTOL, electric powertrain, and
paign to petition bars to replace pa- The state of Illinois was notified Dec. certification experts while Stellan-
per straws with plastic cups that have 23 about the pending layoffs, which tis will contribute advanced manu-
built-in straws. The company added a start March 21. facturing expertise, experienced
link to its own sip-a-cup product. personnel, and capital to the part-
In 2020, during pandemic lockdowns, nership.

January 2023 PLASTICS NEWS 57