Arkansas-based Alliance Rubber Co, the US’s largest rubber band maker, is adding products under the American office supply chain store, Staples’s private label in its range.
The family-owned and operated company, which already has a portion of Staples’ business, has produced 15 million lb of rubber bands and other products in 2014 and is on target to produce 18 million lb over the next year with the added Staples business, said Jason Risner, marketing manager for Alliance. A third shift will have to be added, he said.
Even then, the 150,000-sq ft plant won’t be operating at capacity, as it did in the early 2000s, when Alliance was producing about 25 million lb of product per year. Accounting for the decline is the slowdown in the newspaper and postal industries, Alliance said. Thus, offering more products could help offset the decline, Alliance was reported saying.
The rubber bands produced by Alliance make up about 60 to 80% latex rubber. The material, it said is harvested from from trees grown in countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.