The Early Years
Duke and Paul Keiswetter founded Petoskey Plastics in 1969. On April 1, 1970, operations began with five employees and one bag machine that converted purchased film into plastic bags. The company found our calling in 1975 when we purchased an extrusion line to manufacture film. Over the next several years, we grew and acquired additional extrusion lines.
Sustainable Mindset
We first began in-house recycling in 1978, after we added on to the new Petoskey plant location. In 1990, we were awarded a grant from the state of Michigan through the Quality of Life Bond Fund to recycle post-consumer polyethylene waste. The fund enabled Petoskey Plastics to purchase a recycle line from Italy to reprocess plastic scrap.
In 1991, with the State of Michigan’s assistance through a Quality of Life Grant, we expanded the recycle department with wash line technology to reprocess post-consumer bags and film. Now, the Petoskey plant features numerous extrusion lines utilizing recycled materials from our Indiana recycling facility.
Continued Growth
In 1999, Petoskey Plastics acquired the assets of a polyethylene film plant in Morristown, Tennessee. We made significant investments to refurbish and add new equipment. Today, the Morristown Plant has multiple 3- and 5-layer extrusion lines utilizing recycled materials, converting lines, and a 4-color offset paper printing press.
The summer of 2007 marked the opening of our new corporate headquarters building in downtown Petoskey. Later that year, we renovated a former garage door manufacturing facility in Hartford City, Indiana, converting it to a 330,000-square-foot leading-edge recycling facility. In 2013, we added blown film manufacturing and converting lines.
More Recently
At the beginning of 2020, Jason Keiswetter was named President, and Paul Keiswetter transitioned into his role as Chairman-CEO. The same year, Petoskey Plastics responded to the medical community’s need for polyethylene gowns during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This occurrence prompted the company to consider producing medical gowns as a permanent product offering. We added another new product line in 2021: our GreenPE Shrink®. At launch, the shrink film stood out in the market with high recycled resin content 5-layer film.
Notably, in the spring of 2021, Petoskey Plastics opened its fourth manufacturing location in McKinney, Texas. This location positions us closer to suppliers and West Coast customers.
In November 2023, Petoskey Plastics and Paul Keiswetter, Chairman-CEO, were honored to receive the 2023 Veteran Business of the Year award from the National Veteran Business Development Council (NVBDC). Concurrent with the NVBDC award, Crain’s Detroit Business listed Petoskey Plastics as the 6th largest Michigan Veteran-Owned Business based on revenue.
Most recently, the company celebrated 55 years in business in 2024 and was again named Veteran Business of the Year in 2025.
