LS Mtron Injection Molding Machines USA (LS IMM USA) announced that Paul Caprio, a longtime veteran of KraussMaffei and Engel, has left retirement to join the company as its president of sales effective Jan. 23.
The new role reunites Caprio with LS IMM USA’s President, Peter Gardner, a friend and colleague since they first worked together in 1989 at Machinery Systems in Chicago. Caprio’s later career includes a 25-year stint with KraussMaffei, ending with him as the company’s president for North America. He then became president at Engel for just over two years before retiring in February 2022.
Gardner said he talked Caprio out of an early retirement to join the team so that together they can grow the business and continue building its customer base to justify investment in a future IMM assembly plant in the U.S.
“Paul knows the injection molding customer base in North America very well,” Gardner said. “He is the best person to lead our company’s sales to the level we want to achieve, and as quickly as possible.”
Addressing his decision to come out of retirement, Caprio said, “The North American market is seeing a resurgence in manufacturing and the market can take advantage of having a new high-end quality supplier from the technological and manufacturing savvy country of South Korea. LS Mtron is a full line supplier building thousands of machines per year and servicing all segments of the industry … and the plan to build a new IMM plant in the U.S. was a real solid reason for me to come out of retirement.”
LS Mtron, a division of the LS Group, is Korea’s largest producer of IMMs, with an output of up to 2,800 machines per year. Headquartered in Duluth, Ga., LS IMM USA sells LS Mtron’s machines in North America.
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