Flexible Film Processor Reinvents Itself With Coextrusion Investment

Just two short years ago, Scot Gagnon was considering selling Mountain States Plastics (MSP), the film extrusion and converting company his father founded in 1976. At the time, the flexible packaging company was operating seven monolayer film lines, some of which dated back to the 1990s, out of a 45,000-square-foot plant in Johnstown, Colorado. But Scot’s eldest son Anthony, who like his dad worked in the plant since he was a high schooler, wanted to reinvigorate the family business. The two agreed on a strategy to, in Scot’s words, “set the business up with the best possible future by going first-class all the way.”

Mountain States Plastics got into blown-film coextrusion technology in 2025 with two new Reifenhauser lines. Source: Mountain States Plastics

To that end, the Gagnons invested more than $6.5 million to remove all but one of the company’s original monolayer lines and replace them with new coextrusion lines from Reifenhäuser. Two are in operation now: a five-layer line for form/fill/seal film has been running since March 2025; and a three-layer line has been in operation since November 2025. MSP has also invested in a railcar-unloading and conveying system furnished by Novatec, and plans on adding another new line this year.

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The Upgrade Impact?

For starters, what was once an operation that only produced single-layer films is now utilizing coextrusion on nearly 75% of its capacity. “As a result of our investment in new technology, existing customers now had new and better options from us then their other suppliers,” says Scot Gagnon. “And Reifenhäuser’s reputation for high-quality equipment has helped us develop several new products and attract new customers.”

MSP is now offering stretch-hood films, larger-volume shrink films, sealant webs, pallet covers and gaylord liners, Gagnon notes. Coextrusion technology has paved the way for the processor to use reprocessed materials in core layers on certain products to decrease costs, he adds. And because the new lines run at much higher speeds and outputs, MSP can now “quote larger customers with larger volumes that we could have only dreamed of in the past,” says Gagnon. Not surprisingly, the high-speed lines have dramatically reduced lead times.

Quality has been dramatically improved as well. The new Reifenhäuser lines are equipped with automated gauge-control technology that has reduced thickness variation to ±2-3%, vs. ±10% on the single-layer lines. Where the bottom line is concerned, MSP is projecting a 20-30% increase in sales in 2026, and an additional 20-30% increase in 2027.

Of course, moving from a nearly 50-year history of just running single-layer lines to state-of-the-art multi-layer systems was not without its challenges. “We’re still running the LLDPE/LDPE/metallocene resins we’ve run for years; we knew going in that it was going to be a challenge moving to coextrusion, so we tried to keep things simple where possible,” Gagnon explains.

“Still, the learning curve was massive, but we have had excellent service and advice from our machinery suppliers, and incredible help from our resin suppliers,” says Gagnon. “Going from dials and tape measures to automated computer screens has been a challenge for some. Learning film structures has been fun, but when we listen to our suppliers, life is pretty good.”

MSP has also recently received its BRCGS food packaging certification, which Gagnon says will open the door “to many new customers and products.”