Our History

In 1980, Sonoco Products Company entered the plastic bag business with one product offering, a 12 x 7 x 24, 18 micron, white film, t-shirt style bag printed in one or two colors. The original plant, located in Onset, MA, consisted of just 3, two-lane bag lines operating at 110 cycles per minute. HDPE resin was initially imported from Germany. A second plant was added in Santa Maria, CA in 1983.

Over the years regional plants were added to improve transportation efficiencies and product lines became more varied and specialized to meet the needs of particular market segments. Sonoco's High Density Film Products division continued to expand by acquiring the plastic bag operations of Hilex Poly in 1989. Throughout the 1990's we led the industry in research and development of products that addressed economic, environmental, and ease-of-use challenges.

In 2003, Hilex Poly LLC reentered the plastic bag and film business with the purchase of Sonoco’s High Density Film Products division. In the fall of 2005, Hilex Poly LLC. purchased Vanguard Plastics, Inc. creating the largest retail carryout packaging manufacturer in the world. In 2006 Hilex made a commitment to becoming the plastic bag industry’s environmental leader and opened the world’s first and still its largest closed loop plastic bag recycling facility in North Vernon, IN. 

From a maker of basic white bags we have grown in to a company that understands our customer’s desire for more sustainable products.  With high recycled content bags, like our Gray is the New Green bag; Bag-2-Bag recycling, the industry’s first manufacture take back program; innovative technologies like our HED degradable plastic bags that can degrade in as few as eight weeks in sunlight and oxygen; and our evolutionary E3 reusable bag, Hilex continues to build on the experience and traditions of the past while moving forward with additional capacity and new products that keep environmental leadership in mind.