The success of a family-owned company is the reason why it must leave Plainfield after 83 years and move to Franklin.

Renowned early on for its manufacture of oil burners and fruit presses, Cozzoli Machinery Co. of West Third Street is now known worldwide as a premier source of devices to fill and seal containers for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries.

The company has received approval for a $4.5 million New Jersey Economic Development Authority loan to build a 98,000-square foot facility on 10 acres in Franklin on School House Road off Randolph Road.

"It's a site that got complete approval. They're just modifying it a little bit," said Frank Hasner, Franklin's economic development director.

Hasner said the company hopes to begin construction sometime in the spring.

He said one reason why the Plainfield-based company sought property in the School House Road area was because of its close proximity to Interstate 287.

Company president Frank Cozzoli said he expects the $6 million project to be completed by the end of the year.

The change comes just as the company received a prestigious designation, ISO 9001, that means it meets international quality standards.

"We're looking forward to the revived image of our company," Cozzoli said. "It sends a strong message out to the market and to our competition."

The Company began when Cozzoli's grandfather, also named Frank, emigrated from Bari, Italy, at age 17. The young tradesman opened a tool and die shop in an 1897 building whose cornerstone is a prominent feature of the lobby at the present company. The company expanded by buying a nearby church and linking the two buildings. The church's wooden arches can still be seen in the company's second floor lunchroom.

The company garnered a gold medal for its automatic fruit press design in a 1926 exposition in Brussels. After Cozzoli's father, Joseph, joined in the early 1930's, the company received a call from a New York City laboratory seeking a design for a filling machine. The company's ability to live up to its motto — "Our goal is to exceed customers' expectations" — launched its new direction.

In a tour of the present building, Frank Cozzoli and technical service manager Tom Tetzlaff showed off a few of the machines the company has designed. One can fill 200 to 300 syringes per minute for the Becton-Dickinson Hypak line. Another flame-seals ampules. A machine was being tested to fill bottles with powdered oral penicillin destines for Indonesia.

Recently, the company had a rush order related to the need for smallpox vaccine in the post-Sept. 11 homeland security effort.

The Plainfield building's wooden floors and ceiling height prevent the company from building very large machines, Cozzoli said. Its more spacious Menominee, Wisc., subsidiary handles many of its jobs.

Contributing: Staff writer Josee Valcourt