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CAPVILLE
Crawfordsville is the absolute world leader in bottle cap production. Not only do we have Alcoa CSI producing more plastic bottle caps than any other city in the world, but their process and equipment to produce plastic bottle caps was invented here.
Crown Cork and Seal is also located here and is the only metal cap manufacturer still remaining in the United States. These two companies have an intertwining history in Crawfordsville starting back in 1932 when Robert A. Smith founded what was then known as Hoosier Crown.
His son, James G. (Jim) Smith, became the president of the company in 1955. Jim Smith is still consulting with MCED and West Central Indiana Business Innovations to mentor fledgling Montgomery County entrepreneurs. Mr. Smith understands the significance of a good idea that can grow into a great contribution to a community.
The business name changed in the 1970’s to H-C Industries as the business diversified into products other than steel crowns. In 1986, Alcoa acquired H-C Industries which had developed a patented compression molding process to make plastic caps for soft drinks. Now known as Alcoa CSI the company is a part of the Packaging & Consumer Group of Alcoa Inc. They produced over 73 billion closures worldwide in 2005 with our local plant producing the greatest number of those. They also design closure systems and the equipment to manufacture the caps. My favorite part of the Alcoa plant tour is not seeing how fast the caps are produced. No, that is not a misprint on my part, you literally can not see them coming off the line they are being made so fast. They are another example of one of our local industries doing a fantastic job of competing globally by utilizing knowledge to out produce the competition. We recently presented Alcoa CSI with the Montgomery County Economic Development “Bright Star Award” for outstanding corporate citizenship, on behalf of MCED and the community. They have proven themselves to be leaders in the community by sponsoring many charitable and volunteer efforts to include; The Boys and Girls Club, Crawfordsville Community School Corporation, MUFFY, Family Crisis Shelter, Ivy Tech, Lew Wallace Study Preservation Society, Montgomery County Education Foundation, St.Clare Medical Center, and St. Clare Neighborhood Clinic. Plant Manager, Jeff Birk, is especially proud of his employees for winning the March of Dimes Walk-a-thon Battered Boot Award for the past three years. They will also be working with the Friends of Sugar Creek on a special cleanup day for Alcoa employees and their families. Mr. Birk volunteers his time to serve as a Director on the Montgomery County Economic Development board and we are very grateful for his time spent guiding us. The company is growing again and has invested over 20 million dollars locally over the last two years that resulted in over 50 new jobs. Alcoa CSI provides jobs to over 380 full time employees and 40 temporaries as they make our community the bottle cap capital of the world. Actually, the people that work there know them as “closures”, but the “Closure Capital of the World” may not translate as well in all circles. Any way you say it, we need to support Alcoa CSI as a community and celebrate their victories with them. So the next time you need to name something in the community or are looking for an area where we might be number one, remember Alcoa CSI, and go Caps!
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Corporate Sponsors of
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June |
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July |
August |
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September |
October Alcoa CSI |
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November |
December Pace Dairy Foods |
Fax: (765)
362-6900