Our Story

It all started with a few very determined people, working in garage-like, 750 square-foot structure. Their vision? They wanted to produce the highest quality products on time, each an everytime. They formed Elgin Molded Plastics in 1949, and very quickly was considered a leader in custom injection molding. Dedication to excellence led to success, and the business thrived for many years. In the 1960's, Elgin Molded decided to expand into the manufacturing industry. The leaders at Elgin Molded decided to fill a hole in the lighting industry, and started Empco-Lite, which focused soley on manufacturing lighting products. More specifically, they wanted to focus on producing and manufacturing high-quality highway, airport, marine, and railroad lighting products. A similar pattern emerged in the 70's, where once again there was a need to fill a hole, this time in the construction industry. So in 1978, AKT Corporation was formed with the purpose of manufacturing delineators, guardrail delineators, barrier wall markers and traffic signal lenses.

Today, we are proud to be industry leaders in multiple different industries. All of our Empco-Lite and AKT Corporation products are molded through Elgin Molded Plastics (EMP). We have been industry leaders for over 70 years because we have evolved with the times, but we have also stayed true to our roots. We attribute our current success to the same dedication of excellence that our founders had. All of our products are made in America, right in our Elgin Molded Facility. We are a family-owned business, a woman-owned business, and we are forever proud of the work we do here.