Recent Headlines:

• Surefil Expands Facilities, Receives Approval on City of Kentwood Tax Abatement

• Surefil Revolutionizes Contract Manufacturing

  with Introduction of SureScrap™

• Surefil to Add High-Speed Packaging Line for 2007
• Surefil Manufactures 2,000,000th Bottle
• Huntington Bank CEO, Regional President Visit Surefil LLC

Surefil Expands Facilities, Receives Approval on City of Kentwood Tax Abatement

(Grand Rapids, Mich.) – Surefil LLC, a contract manufacturer for the personal care and medical industries, announces the addition of a 50,000 square foot extension to its manufacturing facilities.  The company broke ground on the lot adjacent to its world headquarters after the City of Kentwood approved a tax abatement for Surefil.

"Since establishing our world headquarters less than one year ago, Surefil has grown rapidly," says Surefil CEO Bill Hunt.  "While we have always planned for an expansion, we are happy to announce that rising customer demand prompted us to break ground even earlier than anticipated."

Hunt says that the expansion will be completed by the end of February.  In addition to meeting the needs of Surefil's growing clientele, the expansion will support the addition of a new filling and packaging line being installed at Surefil.  The new line is one of the most advanced lines to be installed in the U.S. contract packaging industry and will add an additional 85 million units to Surefil's current capacity.

To support the expansion, Surefil applied for a tax abatement from the City of Kentwood.  Surefil completed the first step in receiving the tax abatement when the city commissioners approved the establishment of an industrial development district on Dec. 5.  Surefil received final approval on the tax abatement during the Jan. 2 hearing when city commissioners voted to approve an industrial facilities exemption certificate for the company.

Surefil Revolutionizes Contract Manufacturing with Introduction of SureScrap™

(Grand Rapids, Mich.) – Surefil LLC, a contract manufacturer for the personal care and medical industries, has introduced SureScrap™, a new, advanced program for major brand customers.  SureScrap™ is a premium service for customers who are focused on driving down material costs and maintaining tighter control of their supply chain.  The program is a comprehensive approach to leveraging new plant design, sophisticated equipment, information systems and operating philosophy.

To integrate SureScrap™, Surefil designed its new plant with lean manufacturing in mind, minimizing the distances between compounding, holding and filling.  All of the plant’s new piping systems utilize minimal pipe diameter while maintaining the capability for high volume flow.  Each pipe operates on a slope and the SurePig™ pigging system ensures minimum product is left in the transfer piping.  The SurePig™ system consists of a flexible “pig” that is launched through the transfer pipe.  The pig pushes all of the product in the pipe to a receiving vessel, which allows the capture of the product.  The pig is then launched back to its starting point.  “We look at every possible means for reducing scrap,” says Doug Anderson, Surefil’s Chief Engineer.  “Our operation of the pigging system allows capture of at least an additional 1 percent of product.”

Surefil also uses the SureStick™ adhesive system to reduce packaging scrap.  The adhesive system allows for rapid label stripping on any misplaced or bubbled labels and facilitates high-quality re-labels.  With SureStick™ a label can be stripped off for up to six hours after labeling, saving the bottle, cap and product while achieving a first quality product.

Operational strategy initiatives include the enforcement of a strict quarantine of all incoming materials to ensure no material enters the “available for production status” in the warehouse.  This quarantine dramatically reduces scrap in the packaging area.

The plant is also equipped with an impressive water purification system.  The system softens city water, filters the water using carbon, and incorporates both a GE Osmonics reverse osmosis system and a Surefil-designed Electrolytic Deionization (EDI) system.  Finally, the system has ultraviolet purification and subsequent micron filtering.  The USP Grade 29 is virtually a pure H2O molecule.  In-line Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and conductivity meters ensure the reliability of the system.  Starting with this highly-purified water ensures virtually flawless product compounding.

The 316 stainless steel compounding tanks are all equipped with SureSweep™ sweep cone system and sweep wall agitation, a rotating shaft with “arms” that reach out and hold Teflon scrapers against the wall.  This design improves mixing and heat transfer.  It also ensures that the mix tank is essentially scraped clean when the batch is transferred.  This is a Surefil standard.

SureScrap™, SurePig™, SureStick™ and SureSweep™ are Registered Trademarks of Surefil LLC.

Surefil to Add High-Speed Packaging Line for 2007

New Line is One of the Most Advanced in the U.S.

Grand Rapids, Mich. -Surefil LLC, a fast-growing contract manufacturer in the personal care and medical industries, announces its plans to add a new, high-speed packaging line to its facilities for 2007. The new line is one of the most advanced lines to be installed in the U.S. contract packaging industry.

The installation of the new Surefil packaging line will mark an increase in capacity for potential brand partners.  It will add an additional 85 million units to Surefil's current capacity.  The line is the first of three new packaging lines expected to be installed at Surefil over the next 24 months.  "Surefil's new capacity will offer a tremendous benefit to the marketplace," says Surefil CEO Bill Hunt.  "For example, if a new product is selling surprisingly well, but a major brand company does not have the manufacturing capacity to produce more, Surefil does have the manufacturing capacity to meet that demand, and it's available for immediate scale up."

The new line features a bottle unscrambler and a servo-driven labeler for orienting bottles, an ideal feature for precise label and cap placement.  Surefil has also selected a servo-driven filler with 28 fill heads, 12 cap heads and a filling speed of 280 bottles per minute.  Equipment for bottle coding and case erecting, packaging and sealing completes Surefil's new, state-of-the-art packaging line.  Surefil engineers also hope to add robotic palletizing to the new line, and are in the final evaluation stage of the technology. 

"The equipment on Surefil's new line is ideal for liquid filling in the personal care and medical industries," says Hunt.  "It was designed to exceed equipment cleaning and sanitary standards for Surefil's ideal customer."  The sanitary design eliminates the potential for contamination of personal care and medical products, and features 316 stainless steel in all product contact areas.

Surefil's new packaging line is fully validated and meets the company's exacting standard for accurate filling of .2%.  The procedures and operations of this line allow Surefil to manufacture identical lots batch after batch. Surefil can also meet stringent customer requirements through their process validation system.

Surefil Manufactures Two-Millionth Bottle in First Month of 47 SKU Customer Launch

New Company Also Launches 3 SKU Line Of Mouthwash With Own Formula

Grand Rapids, Mich. – Surefil LLC, a newly-established contract manufacturer in the personal care and medical industry, announces that it has completed its two-millionth bottle during the launch of a 47 SKU line of shampoos and conditioners.

After establishing its world headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mich. on March 14, Surefil’s first bottle rolled off the line less than two weeks later.  The company began full production on April 27 and finished its two-millionth bottle just one month later.  Surefil employees celebrated the accomplishment with a company barbeque.

Surefil also celebrates the successful launch of a 3 SKU line of its own formula of mouthwash.  For the new mouthwash, introduced in June, Surefil provided a full-service buy for a brand partner.  The customer developed the bottle, which included a child-proof cap and neck-banding.

Huntington Bank CEO, Regional President Visit Surefil LLC

Investments Prompt Expansions in Company, Industry

Grand Rapids, Mich. – Huntington Bank CEO Thomas E. Hoaglin and Huntington's West Michigan Region president Jim Dunlap visited Surefil LLC, a contract manufacturer in the personal care and medical industries, on July 12.  Surefil established its world headquarters in West Michigan on March 14, 2006, with the support of Huntington Bank.

Because of the support of Huntington Bank, Surefil has been able to invest in technologies that allow the company to become a leader in the industry, according to Hunt.  The company’s water purifying system, for example, meets the USP 29 standard – creating the purest water achievable – and processes 80 gallons per minute.  Surefil also recently invested in a state-of-the-art filler for quickly manufacturing proto-type and sample products and a 1,500 gallon stainless steel mix tank that features the latest in industry technology.

Surefil has also been able to invest in experienced leaders for its executive team. The average executive has two decades of experience and a combined 186 years of experience with a variety of well-known companies including Alticor, Pfizer, Dow Chemical, General Electric and Philips Medical.  The skilled executive team has already led the company in celebrating early milestones.  In June, Surefil completed its two-millionth bottle during the launch of a 47 SKU line of shampoos and conditioners and launched a 3 SKU line of its own formula of mouthwash for major brand companies