Peter Gardner, president of LS Mtron Injection Molding Machine USA, who joined the company in 2021 as a business director after a stint at a California internet datacenter, is retiring.
Over a 37-year career, Gardner has held leadership roles for a half-dozen companies and greatly expanded LS Mtron’s footprint in North America over the past four years. Prior to joining LS Mtron, he was VP and GM of the plastic machinery division for Daiichi Jitsugyo America (DJA). In 2017, he identified LS Mtron to replace the Niigata line for DJA, and later led LS Mtron’s buyout of the DJA machinery division.
The news Aug. 18 comes just days after Paul Caprio, the company’s president of sales, told Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing in an interview that the company is making big strides toward an ambitious goal: to secure a 20 percent share in the North American market. In late 2023, when the company was at 5 percent, Gardner said five years seemed a reasonable time to hit 10 percent. But Caprio revealed Aug. 15 the company celebrated the mark a couple months ago.
Having made it to the 10 percent pivot point, Caprio, who’s a longtime friend of Gardner’s, said the company is starting to look at localizing assembly in the U.S., as it zeroes in on once again trying to double its market share.
“We’ve already started looking at buildings and and property that we already have and planning at a high level, how do we localize, and the tariffs also are part of that discussion,” Caprio said. “... For everybody that's crying about the market, we're just taking a little bit from everybody and are happy about it.”
“This milestone reflects not only our growing market presence in North America, but also our continued commitment to delivering world-class technology, exceptional service and true long-term value for our customers,” Gardner said.
Gardner began his career as a sales engineer with Machinery Systems Inc. in Chicago in 1988. He earned his bachelor’s in business from DePaul University and his bachelor’s in plastics engineering from Illinois State University.
“I kind of accidentally fell into the plastics industry after completing my first two years in college with no declared major,” Gardner recalled. “Some of my friends were in the plastics program at Illinois State and suggested I take an introductory course. One thing led to another, and pretty soon I had too many credits in the plastics program to turn back. Later, I went back to school to get my business degree at Depaul University in Chicago, as I was more interested in the business management end of the plastics industry than the technical side.”
Among his proudest professional achievements, he said, was turning around Niigata as it struggled through bankruptcy, back in 2003.
“As Niigata underwent an ownership change (now part of Haitian), I sought a new IMM supplier for DJA and brought in LS Mtron. I found myself in a very familiar place: almost no sales to American customers but lots of potential — basically another startup. By now I knew the startup formula: assemble the right team, build a marketing story and brand image and take care of the customers. It worked again, as is evident in LS Mtron’s quick growth to become a major player in the market.”
Gardner said he plans to spend more time with his wife and two college-age children.
He plans to continue to work with LS Mtron over the next six months to facilitate the transition.
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Karen Hanna | Senior Staff Reporter
Senior Staff Reporter Karen Hanna covers injection molding, molds and tooling, processors, workforce and other topics, and writes features including In Other Words and Problem Solved for Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing, Plastics Recycling and The Journal of Blow Molding. She has more than 15 years of experience in daily and magazine journalism.
