U.S. Cap Systems Corp., a Spokane maker of caps for plastic jugs and enhancements for plastic-jug making systems, is on course to triple its sales this year and expects soon to be producing more than 1 billion caps annually.


The company currently makes about 375 million capsused mostly on milk jugseach year, says Chuck Hogan, its executive vice president.


To increase its production capacity, U.S. Cap is expanding its facility here and is supplementing its own production by contracting with Pen-Ro Group Corp., a Pittsfield, Mass.-based manufacturer, to make some of its caps. With the production increases that are currently contemplated, both U.S. Cap and Pen-Ro each will make 500 million caps annually for U.S. Cap customers.


Hogan says U.S. Cap is beefing up its production capacity after landing a few new customers, the largest being Winn-Dixie Stores Inc., a Jacksonville, Fla.-based supermarket operator and food producer that owns seven dairies in the East. Hogan says Winn-Dixie has converted two of its dairies to U.S. Caps bottling systemsuch a conversion involves installing U.S. Cap-patented components on conventional jug molding machinesand plans to convert the other five dairies to its systems this year. Winn-Dixie probably will need 250,000 to 300,000 caps a year, and the contract to supply them likely will bring in an additional $3.5 million in revenues annually for U.S. Cap, Hogan says.


He declines to disclose U.S. Caps current annual sales.


This has been a long time coming for us, Hogan says. Hogan helped found the 7-year-old company, which spent its first five years developing its patented caps and systems.


To increase its production here, U.S. Cap has leased an additional 15,500 square feet of warehouse space in a building that adjoins its current quarters in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park, at 3808 N. Sullivan. The company has a total of 25,000 square feet of floor space.


Hogan says U.S. Cap is moving its inventory storage to the newly leased space to make way for two new plastic-cap molding machines, which will give it five such machines altogether. He expects that the company will add those machines within the next year.


The company also is supplying some of the molding attachments Pen-Ro will use in five such molding machines it plans to install in the next four or five months, Hogan says.


Between the new equipment at U.S. Cap and the attachments its providing for Pen-Ro, U.S. Cap will invest $1.75 million in new equipment over the next year, Hogan says.


U.S. Cap currently employs 18 people, and while sales and production will be increasing, Hogan doesnt anticipate that the company will hire more workers.