By Miles Moore
Rubber & Plastics News Staff
TORONTO—Greg Bavington strode
through the Cawthra Avenue manufacturing facility of National Rubber Technologies Corp., reflecting on the changes
his company had undergone over the
past year or so.
As of the end of November, the site
was the only NRT facility remaining, as
the company moved the last piece of
equipment out of its Symington Avenue
plant a couple of miles away.
Bavington, president and CEO of
NRT and of KN Rubber L.L.C., said the
move began in stages in February,
around the time KN purchased the former NRI Industries Inc. and renamed it
National Rubber Technologies.
“It’s a big job to move a factory,” he
said, pointing at an enormous rubber
press. “That press alone weighs a million pounds.”
NRT dropped some product lines at
the time of the purchase, which wasn’t
the reason for consolidating operations
but did make it feasible, according to
Bavington.
“This company grew organically into
two manufacturing facilities, but it ended up being a little bit stilted,” he said.
“You’d never have laid it out the way it
was laid out.”
Having two plants hampered NRT’s
efforts at lean manufacturing because of
higher costs and logistic delays, Bavington said.
It was problematic to have necessary
equipment and key personnel—
engineering, maintenance, technical, supervisory and financial—divided between
the two locations.
Hauling product and people between
locations was a hassle, despite their
proximity, he said. Toronto’s notorious
traffic invariably meant delays in shuttling between the two buildings. Bavington estimated he’ll have an extra half-hour to hour a day in time that used to
be wasted commuting.
“It was Murphy’s Law: You were never in the building you needed to be in,”
he said. “It was a two-day effort to get
five people together for a meeting. To
have our key people divided and dispersed just was not efficient.
“Now, all our staff people will be in
the same building,” Bavington said. “If I
want to have a meeting, I just have to
stand up and call out their names.”
Long history
NRT began life as National Rubber
Co. in 1927. As NRI Industries, it became both a major rubber recycler and a
major supplier of auto parts to Ford Motor Co. and other auto makers. It also
developed a large portfolio of other products, including acoustic control goods,
matting, flooring and custom-molded
goods.
The company had four plants, recycled about 1. 5 million tires a year, and
in late 2006 announced it had recycled
its 22 millionth tire.
Nevertheless, in September 2006 NRI
filed for reorganization under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, the
Canadian equivalent of Chapter 11. At
the time, then-President Al Power said
he would attempt to sell the company as
a whole to an appropriate buyer, keeping all its operations
intact and its 550-
600 employees on the
job.
By the end of October, however, NRI
announced the closing of two plants and
the layoff of about
425 workers in the
face of no buyers and
debts of more than
$22 million.
Kinderhook Industries, a New York-based private equity
firm, stepped in four
months later as the
Toronto-based manufacturer’s financial
backer. Through its
portfolio company,
KN Rubber, Kinderhook purchased NRI,
changed its name to
National Rubber Technologies and made
Bavington—a 15-year
veteran of the company, and its vice president of operations for
the preceding 10
years—its president
and CEO.
About half of NRT’s business is automotive-related. The
firm also continues to view rubber recycling as one of its
core strengths.
Rebirth with
new owner
NRT’s financial
problems now are
well behind it, according to Bavington.
The biggest signpost
Canada’s NRT ready
to rebound after cuts,
purchase by new owner
RPN photos by Miles Moore
Employees work at National Rubber Technologies Corp.’s lone remaining plant in
Toronto. While new owners consolidated operations into the one facility, the firm is
beginning to hire workers again, with employment up to 300.
in the company’s rebirth, he said, is in
its rehiring—NRT is now up to 300 employees and hopes soon to grow back to
NRI’s old strength of 550.
“Every former hourly employee of NRI
has been offered a new job at National
Rubber Technologies,” he said. NRT’s
well-trained, loyal work force is one of
the company’s great strengths, Bavington said, along with its expertise in
product design and operating efficiency.
NRT’s operating synergies were increased late in March when KN purchased Wapakoneta, Ohio-based Koneta
Inc. from Lancaster Colony Corp. Koneta is a major manufacturer of rubber
bed mats for pickup trucks, truck and
trailer splash guards, and other rubber
automotive accessories.
“It’s a classic dovetail fit of two companies,” Bavington said. “Where NRT
was weak, Koneta was strong and vice-versa.”
Koneta’s strength in truck accessories
complements NRT’s in auto parts and
molded rubber, Bavington said. “We’re
much stronger working together,” he
said.
NRT’s business is 50-percent automotive, and the company hopes to increase
its auto parts business, according to
Bavington.
It still has all of its injection molding
business from Ford, as well as significant contracts with other OE and after-market companies.
The firm’s matting, flooring and
acoustic control businesses also are
booming, Bavington said. Wayne Bacik,
NRT’s vice president of sales and marketing, was in Europe in November,
working on building NRT’s load bearing
business there.
NRT also will remain dedicated to
rubber recycling as integral to its core
strengths, Bavington said. “We recycle
the same number of tires as we used to,
if not a little more,” he said. “Rubber is
worth more than coal, and we apply recycled rubber into markets where rubber would be used, not coal.”
NRT’s technology allows it to roll out
a continuous sheet of rubber one mile in
length, Bavington said. After the shapes
are cut out of the sheet, the scraps are
put back into the batch for reuse.
“With most rubber sheets, you have
four sides,” he said. “With our continuous process, we have only two. That
minimizes waste.”
The North American Free Trade
Agreement essentially has been in effect
for as long as Bavington has been in the
rubber industry, and it’s been helpful to
companies like his.
“NAFTA has been great for Canadian
manufacturing,” he said. “The only border issues that concern us now are security ones. Canada is a very small market. As markets become more global,
only the best of the best will win. To be
the best of the best, you have to have the
right technology, the right training and
access to sufficient markets to pay for
those things.”
NRT CEO Greg Bavington
