VIDEO: Portman Highlights Jobs Saved at Russells Point Small Business Thanks to Paycheck Protection Program
In a new video, Senator Portman highlights his recent visit to World Class Plastics Inc., a provider of thermoplastic injection molded products and services. At the onset of the pandemic, World Class Plastics secured a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which has enabled the company to keep its 96 employees on the payroll with their health care and other benefits. The PPP was made possible thanks to the bipartisan CARES Act, which Senator Portman supported and was signed into law by President Trump.
Portman also discusses the company’s efforts to help the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response by shifting production to face shields, face masks, and plastic tools for opening doors and pushing buttons without needing to touch public surfaces.
A transcript of the video can be found below and the video can be found here.
"I’m here at World Class Plastics, a company in Russells Point, Ohio, and it’s a great little company, it’s been around for about 25 years and has about 96 employees. But if not for the PPP loan from the federal government - that’s the Paycheck Protection Program - they would have probably about 60 employees, they told me. They would have had to let a lot of people go, and in fact, they’re fearful that they might have had to close their doors if they had not had the PPP loan. These are loans from Washington focused on small businesses that are losing business in order to keep employees, because you can convert the loan into a grant if you use it for payroll. That’s exactly what they did. They were able to keep all of their people. They’re now doing much better. They’re at about 85 percent of where they were last year, but they said they never could have made it through without PPP. So it’s another example of the importance of something that I strongly supported that was in the CARES package, which is small business relief to keep this economy moving. They also got creative at a time when their customers weren’t buying from them. They sell a lot to the auto companies and the auto companies weren’t buying plastic products because they weren’t in production. Think of the April, May, June timeframe. So they started making face shields and they started making things like these -- “I love Ohio” -- and that’s been very successful for them. So it was helpful for people who needed the personal protective device, like the face shields. But it’s also helpful for the company and I commend them for that, for shifting quickly, being innovative and flexible. So, again, great visit to World Plastics today. I really appreciate what they did in terms of their reaction to COVID-19, and I’m really glad that they took advantage of the PPP loans. World Class Plastics is a company that we're proud of up here in Ohio.”
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