Chamber names Manufacturer of the Year

Jeremy Elwood

Posted online December 12, 2007 | 12:56 pm

For Herb Dankert, general manager of Jarden Plastic Solutions in Springfield, today’s Manufacturer of the Year award ceremony must have felt like déjà vu – except this year’s ceremony had a better outcome.

Jarden won the 13th annual award handed out by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s Manufacturers Council. Jarden was also a finalist in 2006, when Ozarks Coca Cola/Dr Pepper Bottling Co. took the honors.

“It’s a much better feeling this year, that’s for sure,” Dankert said.

The company employs 73 people at its Springfield molded plastics facility, 2600 N. Partnership Blvd. It opened in 1973 as Unimark Plastics and is now a division of publicly traded Jarden Corp., based in New York.

Jarden was chosen from among three finalists; the others were Aaron’s Automotive Products Inc. and Springfield Workshop Inc.

The chamber’s manufacturing council chose finalists based on several criteria: business stability and growth; employee development; product development and sustainability; environmental and safety performance; community involvement; and industry analysis.

See SBJ’s Dec. 17 issue for more on the Manufacturer of the Year award.[[In-content Ad]]