Custom license plate firm goes out of business

HARLINGEN - MyPlates, a custom license plate company that formed a partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation to offer designer license plates, has folded.

A release from MyPlates blames the dwindling economy as the reason for failure.

Australian-owned MyPlates, which has an office of about 15 people in Austin, will lose at least $6 million, spokeswoman Kim Miller Drummond said.

The partnership between MyPlates and TxDOT was the first public-private collaboration of its kind in the country, Drummond said.

The company made plates exclusive to Texas drivers allowing them to adorn their vehicles with more than 100 designs at prices ranging between $95 for a one-year basic design to $795 for a 10-year deluxe package.

MyPlates sold five plates in Cameron County and eight plates in Hidalgo County, Drummond said. Many people, she said, found out about MyPlates.com by word of mouth. That was the case for Harlingen native Alex Treviño who heard about the site from his brother-in-law in San Antonio.

Drummond said MyPlates took six years to get off the ground.

"The Texas legislature discussed it in several sessions before putting together the laws to create the program," she said. Then (TxDOT) put out a contract for bid, which we won. That whole process took about six years."

According to a news release from TxDOT, part of the state's contract with MyPlates required the site to return a percentage of its sales to the Texas general revenue fund. The contract guaranteed a minimum of $40 million to the fund over a five-year period.

MyPlates officials said that all current plate orders will be filled and all plates produced by the company will remain valid until their respective expiration periods.

MyPlates is transferring intellectual property and software to TxDOT for future use.

Pre-existing charity and nonprofit license-plate sales through TxDOT will be unaffected by MyPlates' closure.

The Associated Press contributed to this report