Makaha Sees the Future--Plastics, not Casual Clothes : Manufacturing: The former apparel maker is buying a Mexican factory to produce household goods.

Makaha Inc., a casual clothing maker that had stopped manufacturing in recent months, is going into the plastics business.

The company disclosed in a securities filing Monday that it plans to spend $4 million to buy a Mexican plastics manufacturing plant on the border near Mexicali, which will make plastic household goods. The products will be marketed in the United States and Latin America.

The company’s corporate headquarters in Costa Mesa will most likely be moved closer to Los Angeles, said Heinz Holkenbrink, a New York investment banker who is the company’s new chairman. Holkenbrink’s associate, Harry Ozawa, has been selected as Makaha president.

Makaha, named for a popular surfing town in Hawaii, was founded two years ago by veteran surf wear executive Dennis Donsker. Most recently it was making casual wear under its own label and Western wear under license to round out the line of the Dan Post label, known as one of the nation’s largest boot makers.

But it stopped making clothing last year when it had trouble financing an avalanche of orders, said sources close to the company.

Holkenbrink, meanwhile, bought about 45% of shares of the publicly traded company and reshuffled management. Donsker “remains a shareholder and a friend” in the new arrangement, but will not be involved directly in operations, Holkenbrink said.

He estimated that Makaha will earn about $750,000 on revenues of $12 million this year once the deal for the Mexican plant becomes final, which is expected in early August. The plant, which presently makes audio tapes, videocassettes and medical equipment, will produce household plastic items similar to those made by industry giant Rubbermaid Inc. He said they will concentrate on making “niche” items that Rubbermaid has overlooked and that he hopes to expand the plant’s Mexican work force of 184.

Makaha has obtained 11 trademarks and “certain assets” from a U.S. plastics manufacturer and also plans to enter into joint venture agreement with a Mexican conglomerate. Holkenbrink declined to disclose the names of the companies involved until the deal becomes final.

“It’s a positive change for Makaha,” he said.