Rubber and Plastic News Digital Edition

January 28, 2008

From the ashes

Johnson builds SERI out of remnants of tragedy

By Mike McNulty

Rubber & Plastics News Staff

VICKSBURG, Miss.—It was more than just business when Julie Johnson launched Specialty Elastomer Recovery Inc. in 2004. It also was personal.

The daughter of recycling pioneer and expert Michael Rouse had watched helplessly as her father struggled to resurrect Rouse Polymerics International Inc. two years after an explosion and blaze destroyed the recycled rubber compounder’s facility in

2002, killing five workers and injuring seven others.

Rouse, CEO and founder of the firm, had built a state-of-the-art factory in Vicksburg that was completed in spring

2003, and refocused the company on high-end polymers and powders derived from recycled rubber. But the business wasn’t able to overcome the numerous obstacles in its path—including lawsuits and securing loans—and went bankrupt and closed in mid-2004.

Enter Julie Johnson, with a lot of incentive. She had been out of the rubber industry for almost three years. But when Mike Rouse shut down his company, “I then decided there was something more for myself in this industry.”

She reasoned her father had put everything into the business and lost it. “It just didn’t seem fair,” she

said. “Seeing the shut-down facility, which my father had rebuilt, seemed so devastating and purposeless. I knew at that time, there was something more that had to come out of everything he had done.”

That something was Specialty Elastomer Recovery.

Fast start, quick study

Born in Bellinghan, Wash., and raised in Newport, Ore., Johnson was no rubber industry novice when she founded SERI and became its president in September

2004. She had been involved in the rubber sector since she was a teenager.

From about the age of 12, she said, she has been fascinated by the business. Mike Rouse was partner with a group that ground tires and marketed the material, and she wanted to learn the operation from beginning to end.

During summers as a teenager, she handled a variety of jobs, such as loading tires on conveyor belts and driving front loaders. As she got older, she became involved in other areas, such as drafting. “I think that being around my father was the most fulfilling place I could be,” Johnson said. “It was never boring, and he was so great at letting me run with projects and getting my hands dirty.”

After graduating from Portland State University,

See Johnson, page 23

“I watched my father (Michael Rouse) try to rebuild the company, and he had a lot of obstacles outside the normal course of business with the aftermath of the tragedy. There was so much grief and trauma from the accident, it was crippling.

“I know my father felt a huge devotion to rebuilding the facility for his employees, customers and local vendors. The physical and mental toll was beyond what I feel anyone could comprehend. I know I will never understand what he carries.”

—Julie (Rouse) Johnson, president of SERI
Julie Johnson, president and founder of Specialty Elas-
tomer Recovery Inc., has had an interest in the rubber in-
dustry since she was a young girl, watching and learning
from her father, Michael Rouse.

Chinese joint venture
gives Veyance a boost

By Mike McNulty

Rubber & Plastics News Staff

FAIRLAWN, Ohio—With a major upgrade project in North America well on its way to completion, Veyance Technologies Inc. has turned its sights on China for further expansion.

The company’s wholly owned Asian subsidiary, Veyance Hong Kong Co. Ltd., has combined with the Yinhe Group’s Ruiyuan Rubber and Plastics Co. Ltd. to form a joint venture—Shandong Aneng Conveyor Belt & Rubber Co. Ltd., based in Yanzhou, China—which then purchased the assets of Ruiyuan Rubber to give it a large manufacturing base.

Included in those assets are Ruiyuan Rubber’s state-of-the-art belt plant, mixing operation, carbon black facility and fabric units.

Veyance is the majority shareholder in Shandong Aneng, which employs more than 1,000, while Ruiyuan holds a minority share. Financial details weren’t disclosed.

Shandong Aneng is the largest conveyor belt maker in China and “clearly makes us the No. 1 conveyor belt manufacturer in terms of sales in the world,” according to Jim Pecorelli, vice president and general manager of Fairlawn-based Veyance.

See Veyance, page 22

A familiar name

Metzeler, GDX now known as Henniges

By Brad Dawson

Rubber & Plastics News Staff

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich.— Metzeler Automotive Profile Systems-North America has completed its announced acquisition of GDX Automotive, and the two entities have combined to form a new global automotive sealing company.

The deal was completed Dec. 14, with no financial details disclosed. The merged companies will assume a new name— Henniges Automotive. Well known in Europe, the Henniges name is derived from GDX Automotive’s most recognized brand, founded in Germany by Ernst Henniges in 1951, the company said.

The goal of combining MAPS and GDX into one identity is to create a global company with a “unified mission, vision and culture,” according to Boris Gavric, integration manager for Henniges, who is overseeing the integration process for the businesses. All products will be branded under the Henniges Au-

tomotive name.

The company will build on the brand’s strong heritage and offer “stronger, more diverse product lines in both sealing and anti-vibration systems globally,” the firm said.

Henniges Automotive—based in Farmington Hills at the former GDX headquarters—will supply sealing and anti-vibration systems to major original equipment manufacturer customers via 18 global facilities in North America, Europe and Asia. Six of the sites are in the U.S., and four are in Canada and Mexico.

The combined operations of MAPS and GDX had sales of $700 million in 2006, and the new company employs more than 7,500 people, Gavric said.

The firm is well-positioned in the three global regions to serve the OEMs, and as the business grows, it expects to achieve a regional balance of customers