Inside INdiana Business is reporting that Merrillville-based MonoSol LLC, a manufacturer of water-soluble film, is adding staff to its growing facility in Lebanon. The company says it will hire 25 new workers as it brings two more production lines online.
It manufactures biodegradable films used in products such as laundry detergent pods and dissolvable laundry bags.
MonoSol, a subsidiary of Japan-based Kuraray, opened the Lebanon facility in February. It is the company’s fourth manufacturing plant in Indiana and sixth globally.
The company says it has experienced strong demand increases in recent years, but it was further pressured by growing demand during the pandemic
In April, the company ramped up ramping up the production of dissolvable laundry bags and other products for the healthcare industry due to a surge in demand because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MonoSol was recognized last month by the Indiana Innovation Awards for its pandemic response efforts.
The company was able to quickly increase production of dissolvable laundry bags.
“To continue serving our U.S. and global customers outside the U.K. we needed to find a creative way to add capacity quickly,” said MonoSol Chief Executive Officer P. Scott Bening. “We were able to locate first generation equipment sitting idle at a third-party contract manufacturing partner. With a few phone calls and rapid deployment of engineering resources we restarted the production lines within a matter of weeks.”
The company says demand for bags quadrupled as health systems tried to protect workers from the coronavirus.
The bags reduce contact with soiled linens. Instead of handling the linens, workers simply toss the entire sealed bag into a commercial washing machine where it dissolves with hot water and agitation.