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4
2016
ANNUAL EMPLOYEE MEETINGS
C
onfirming Plenco President and CEO Mike Brotz’s
remarks at the annual employee meetings, Stuart Brotz,
Plenco Vice President of Marketing and Sales, told
employees April 7 that “2015 was a very challenging year for the
sale of Plenco products when compared to 2014.”
Stuart said, “Although a portion of (the) decrease (in sales)
can be attributed to the crude oil situation, it is not the only
factor. The U.S. and global economies have remained rather
weak for some time and a strong U.S. dollar is making our
products more expensive overseas. As such, sales to our foreign
customers were down over 13 percent in 2015.
“Yet as we look forward there are many reasons for
optimism,” Stuart told Plenco employees. “The oil and gas
industry has seen numerous boom and bust cycles. Recent
upgrades here at Plenco have us better positioned to cap-
ture more of the next oil field recovery while maintaining
consistent supply to a more diverse customer base.”
He said that in the competitive market today, Plenco
continues to provide thermoset materials that meet the market
demand for combined temperature resistance, dimensional
stability, physical strength and price.
Stuart said Plenco continues to hold its position as the pre-
dominant domestic supplier of phenolic molding materials for
consumer and industrial electrical products, cosmetic closures,
hair clippers, cookware products and many other markets.
“Our industry-leading customer support, consistent quality
and on-time delivery have preserved our status as the primary or
sole supplier to large corporations (around the world),” Stuart
said.
Consistent with some molding companies moving back to the
United States from abroad, a number of companies are relying
heavily on Plenco’s technical experience to improve their tooling,
molding and finishing processes as they come home.
“Consumer confidence began trending upward again in the
fourth quarter of 2015, and with it, we are beginning to see
increased (BMC) orders (from some customers),” Stuart said.
“Looking forward, there are several projects we will be
working on in 2016 that should help our BMC sales
rebound.”
Past supplier relationships are proving to be important to
Plenco, and more and more previous customers are moving
cautiously back into the U.S. manufacturing market. Stuart
reported that several prior customers are showing an interest in
restoring our relationship.
“Based on our past relationships and the comfort of dealing
with a stable, family owned company, we have begun working
with (major companies) to qualify Plenco materials,” Stuart said.
With a number of recent consolidations of feed stock
suppliers, he said several companies sense an unsafe risk to their
raw materials supply chain and are approaching companies such
as Plenco as a possible additional supplier.
“Thanks to the capabilities of our materials engineering lab
and our history of technical support, a long-time Plenco
customer has indicated that they would move forward with
Plenco in 2016, and production purchases are expected in 2017,”
Stuart said.
On another front, the rigidity of Plenco’s phenolic molding
material has offered a client the opportunity to replace nylon in
a number of applications for an existing customer, which Plenco
will be pursuing in 2016.
“As mentioned earlier, we have made significant improve-
ments in our resin production capabilities,” Stuart said.
“Through these efforts we intend to capture a much larger and
more diversified customer base for both solid and liquid resin
systems. In 2015 we made good progress toward this goal and
saw some significant growth at several established customers as
well.”
One steady resin customer has used Plenco liquid resins to
manufacture phenolic impregnated paper laminates for office
furniture, medical tables, decorative building cladding, cutting
boards, and more.
“Several years ago they lost a significant customer…to an
Asian supplier of phenolic laminate papers,” Stuart said. “After
numerous rounds of qualification testing, our combined efforts
proved that the specifications…were written incorrectly. As a
result, our client’s customer was reapproved for production in
early 2015, providing a nice boost to our sales,”
The use of Plenco resins as a reinforcing agent to
increase the stiffness of rubber compounds by an interna-
tional tire manufacture has been a relationship built on
exceptional service, quality and overall value they have
received from Plenco, Stuart reported.
“At the end of 2015, we came to an agreement that would
guarantee Plenco with (a sizable order),” Stuart said. “We also
re-established our relationship with (another tire manufac-
turer)… (and) we expect final approval will be given by year’s
end.”
Plenco resins also are mixed with calcium oxide and
magnesium to produce refractory brick, refractory mortar,
gunning mixes (pressure process) and monolithics (castable
refractories) to make cast refractory products, many of which
are used in blast furnaces and electric arc furnaces. One of the
top three largest refractories advised Plenco that the company
would be awarded a significant percent of their total sales
volume for 2016.
“Considering the new projects and programs in place,”
Stuart said, “we believe 2016 will be a better year for Plenco.
With your continued great work and ideas, there is no reason to
expect otherwise.”
Despite Challenging Sales Year for Plenco,
Reasons for Optimism Ahead, Stuart Brotz
Reports at Annual Employee Meetings