Few companies with operations in three countries boast of being family-run businesses, but that is the case with Richmond County’s newest corporate citizen.

Plastek Group Vice President of Manufacturing Daniel Prischak described a company with family values at its core when he took the podium Monday aside North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue and other dignitaries at the Cole Auditorium.

“Family is very important to us,” said Prischak, the second of four brothers who all stayed on with the family business. “We believe it’s a good way to run a business, and you get to spend a lot of time with your family. I shared an office with my grandfather. Family is very important to our business.”

In the next three years, the Erie, Pa.-based plastic molding company plans to create 250 jobs and invest about $19 million in Richmond County while opening a new consumer products division.

Monday, Gov. Perdue called the company’s rise from upstart to expanding behemoth “a classic story about the American Dream.”

According to the company’s Web site, founder Joseph Prischak began his career in the molding department at Erie Resistor, then moved on to the tool room where he became an apprentice.

With two partners, he went on to establish his own tool manufacturing company. Triangle Tool Company opened in 1956.

It expanded into the plastics industry in 1971 with the advent of Plastek, and served customers such as IBM, Polaroid and Eastman Kodak.

Prischak bought out his partners in 1983, becoming the company’s sole owner.

Over the past three decades, Plastek has grown “from a handful of workers to over 2,000 employees,” the Web site reads. “In 1991, he was honored with the ‘Master Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award which is sponsored by Inc. Magazine, Merril Lynch Financial Services and the national accounting and consulting firm of Ernst and Young.”

The company operates facilities in Pennsylvania, Brazil, England and soon-to-be in Richmond County.

The trade publication Plastics News estimates Plastek’s total 2009 sales at $315 million, including $190 million in injection molding sales in North America.

Plastics News also said Plastek specializes in consumer, cosmetic and pharmaceutical packaging and closures, and says the Richmond County plant will make caps for deodorant sticks among other products.

The location of Plastek’s Richmond County plant is being withheld until the property is purchased.

Though Daniel was the only one of the Prischak brothers who made it to the company’s unveiling Monday, he brought along future general manager of the North Carolina Consumer Products Division, Steve Ulrich.

Ulrich has only been with the company a year, but has a background in manufacturing stretching much farther back.

He said he’s worked in factories in the south before, and looks forward to doing so again.

“I like the south,” Ulrich said. “There’s just down-home people with no pretense, and that’s nice. Really, I’m just biting at the bull to get down here and get started.”

County officials expect Plastek to begin hiring within six months, and to pay an average wage of $32,800.

The average annual wage in Richmond County is $26,600.

The company’s first face-to-face meeting with county officials came in September at a dinner at Fatz Cafe with the father and all the sons meeting with Richmond County Economic Development Director and County Manager Rick Sago and County Commission Chairman Kenneth Robinette.

After the announcement, Prischak discussed the six-month courtship the company and the county conducted, leading up to Monday’s announcement.

Getting financial incentives from the state was a key component of the process, Prischak said.

“Clearly, the grants and incentives were instrumental in making this possible for us to do,” Prischak said. “But we were also looking at the location of the plant, and the possibility of expansion. From a financial aspect, though, the grants and incentives really made this happen.”

The state put a $250,000 grant in the pot, along with the possibility of tax breaks of up to $1.9 million over nine years, depending on the company’s performance.

He cited a number of reasons for coming to Richmond County in his remarks at the podium, including the training capabilities of Richmond Community College, the opportunity to expand and the quality of the workforce.

“This company understands quality, and that’s part of what makes this such a great for Richmond County,” Gov. Perdue said Monday.

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.