Rubber and Plastic News Digital Edition

December 14, 2009

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Rubber Industry

Executive of the Year

Chaffee has spent a lifetime

working toward BRC’s success

By Bruce Meyer

Rubber & Plastics News Staff

To Chuck Chaffee, CEO of BRC Rubber & Plastics Inc., defining success in today’s difficult business environment really isn’t any different than dur- ing more robust times.

“To me, it’s about having a healthy company and servicing customers and being able to survive so you have work for your people,” said the co-founder of the Churubusco, Ind.-based rubber product manufacturer. “Success in business is what you do and doing it to the best of your ability, and that doesn’t change.”

But don’t think for a second that Chaffee is stuck in his ways. He’s the first to acknowledge that obtaining success today takes a different skill set than it did five years ago. And five years ago, business leaders had to use an approach different from the five years before that.

Chaffee is proud of the fact that BRC’s work force is loaded with employees with 20-30 years of experience who are looking to retire someday from the company.

“That’s success when you have a workplace where people want to work,” he said. “It’s not about how big we are. That’s not important. BRC is the people. We

See Chaffee, page 23

Chuck Chaffee, CEO of BRC Rubber & Plastics Inc., has been learning the ropes
of the industry since he was 6 years old. That experience, combined with a strong
and knowledgeable staff, has helped BRC stay afloat during the recession.

Edgetech I.G. Inc. employees present and past gather on the firm’s plant floor in Cambridge, Ohio, as part of its 20th anniversary festivities Dec. 1. Included in the group was Dale L. Foland ( center), founder of Edgetech parent Lauren International Inc. and its subsidiaries.

RPN photo by Brad Dawson

20 years of growth

Edgetech rises to challenges, expects sales to increase

By Brad Dawson

Rubber & Plastics News Staff

CAMBRIDGE, Ohio—Window and door seal manufacturer Edgetech I.G. Inc. has doubled in size twice this decade and expects to increase sales twofold again by 2014.

But many people associated with the company remember when getting to break-even or simply winning the next account was the order of the day. It wasn’t too long ago—Edgetech is celebrating its

20th anniversary this year—but the Cambridge-based business has accomplished much within that time frame to get to where it is now, said President Michael Hovan.

Edgetech, formed in 1989 as a subsidiary of Lauren Manufacturing Co. in New Philadelphia, Ohio, was built on the warm edge sealing product for the fenestration—or door and window system—industry known as the Super Spacer. The

See Edgetech, page 19

Schieffer adding

to hose capacity

By Mike McNulty

Rubber & Plastics News Staff

PEOSTA, Iowa—Hose producer Schieffer Co. International L.C. is expanding capacity with the addition of machinery at its Peosta manufacturing facility to handle a projected leap in sales in 2010.

The U.S. arm of Schieffer GmbH & Co. K.G. said the expansion, which is expected to create 15 jobs by the end of 2010, should be completed by January. It currently employs about 35.

Schieffer is adding a number of braiding machines at the 35,000-sq.-ft. Peosta facility that will increase the plant’s annual linear output by about 10 million feet of hose, according to Jeff Theis, managing partner and president of the company.

The capacity expansion is the second phase of a three-stage growth plan, he said. The third phase calls for the facility’s capabilities to be increased another 50 percent within the next two years, he said.

The maker of rubber and thermoplastic hose and hose assemblies for the conveyance of high pressure fluids launched its expansion program in 2005 when, as part of phase one, it began adding high-speed extrusion lines and hose reinforcement equipment.

“The extrusion lines are capable of supporting a substantially greater number of braiding machines,” Theis said. “So, as the load demand builds, we are installing additional braiding capacity.”