June 16, 2023 – Plastic News

Kickstart: Embracing Taylor Swift’s eras via beads and bracelets


Swifties have gone all in for plastic this summer.

Not that they’re thinking of their embrace of friendship bracelets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour as being about plastics, obviously, but fans making (or buying) dozens of bracelets with plastic beads to trade at her shows have created a new boom in beads.

Read full article...


June 29, 2020 – Plastic News

When smaller companies make up the biggest ranking


Sometimes more is a lot more. This year, Plastics News has 570 North American injection molders in its annual ranking. The June 22 issue of PN listed the largest of those molders. This week brings another 467 companies.

Read full article...


March 24, 2020 – Plastic News

30 years old, and Toner Plastics continues to grow


Toner Plastics Group has been in growth mode for nearly 30 years.  That’s included multiple acquisitions plus organic growth in a wide variety of interesting end markets.

Read full article...


July 10, 2017 – Plastic News

Beadery Acquires Quality Bead Craft


The Beadery has expanded its product line by acquiring assets of competitor Quality Bead Craft Inc. of Bloomfield, Conn. Beadery is moving acquired molds, processing equipment and inventory to its own injection molding facility in Hope Valley, R.I., where a staff of 35 injection molds proprietary bead product lines as well custom products.

Read full article...


July 5, 2017 – The Westerly Sun

Hope Valley bead manufacturer acquires assets of competitor in Connecticut


HOPE VALLEY — The Beadery, a company of The Toner Plastics Group, East Longmeadow, Mass., has acquired the assets of Quality Bead Craft Inc., Bloomfield, Conn., a leading U.S. plastic bead manufacturer.

Read full article...


December 2016 – WBENC President’s Report
Upcycle Your Keepsakes With Bow K


When Deanna Russo found herself struggling with scissors and a paper plate to construct a makeshift bouquet for her best friend’s wedding rehearsal, she saw an opportunity that changed her life.

Read full article...


November 13, 2014 – Wood River Press
Local beads star in art installation


Hope Valley – On Dec. 6, a giant art installation consisting of 400,000 beads will open in Houston, and every one of those beads was made in Hope Valley.

Read full article...


December 17, 2013 – Plastic News
Inventor brings US business into loop with Wonder Loom


Wixom, Mich. – Two years after going into business, Rainbow Loom inventor Cheong Choon Ng was nearing the millionth sale of his plastic-pronged device for weaving colorful rubber band bracelets.

Read full article...


December 15, 2013 – Crain’s Detroit Business
Rainbow Loom’s creator weaves success from playtime inspiration


Two years after going into business, Rainbow Loom inventor Cheong Choon Ng was nearing the millionth sale of his plastic-pronged device for weaving colorful rubber band bracelets.

Read full article...


September 16, 2007 – Providence Business News
Bead firm shifts model to succeed


The jewelry manufacturing business has been shrinking in Rhode island, but Greene Plastics Corp., which makes more beads than any other company in the United States, has used innovative production methods to keep growing since it started in 1932.

Read full article...


1998 – The Day
R.I Company Cashes in on Demand for Beads as Part of Latest Toy Fad


Beadery Babies are big business these days at Greene Plastics in Hope Valley, R.I., where the firm has been making plastic beads for crafts, jewelry, toys, and games for longer than employees there can remember.

Read full article...


August 6, 1968 – The Westerly Sun
Greene Plastics Plant Updates Sleepy Village of Canonchet


The village is called Canonchet, and it’s part of the Township of Hopkinton, about two miles from Hope Valley, R.I. Although it looks like it’s sleeping when you’re driving through, something appears in the distance that instantly changes your mind.

Read full article...


August 5, 1962 – The Westerly Sun
Our Industrial Heritage – Greene Plastics Corporation


This is a plastic injection machine – At the top right of this machine is a supply hopper, from which a measured amount of plastic pellets fall for each injection. The plastic is heated by the central unit (over the large dial) and injected under hydraulic pressure into the mold.

Read full article...


April 14, 1957 – The Providence Sunday Journal Business Weekly

Greene Plastics Prepares for Future


Future growth – both of the firm itself and of its product line – was planned for in Greene Plastic Corp’s move into its own plant on Canonchet Road, Hope Valley.

Read full article...