Modern Plastics Worldwide - July/August 2009 - dae uptlax

WORLD TOUR
By Robert Colvin
It wasn’t always that way. Back in 1982,
Phil Tredway, who had been working
in international banking in Montreal
for eight years, decided it was time to
start out on his own. So he and his wife
moved back to their hometown, Erie,
where he started his injection molding
operations using two presses financed
by Cincinnati Milacron (Batavia, OH)
in a rented warehouse with a staff of
three. Today he heads the company that
employs 50.
“At first we started processing overflow
work that Omni Plastics (also Erie)
couldn’t handle,” Tredway says. Other
work followed along with additional
custom molding of non-durable goods.
He says he often slept on a cot on the
shop floor to ensure that 24/7 operations
ran smoothly with so few people. The
company expanded during the 1980s
and located in a cluster of other plastics
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Going lean means sustained business
Thomas Tredway says Erie has been
successful in designing and molding
specialty closures sold for snack food
containers.
Erie Molded Plastics (Erie, PA) is a shining example of how small-to-medium-
sized injection molders in developed regions can compete successfully by
specializing and through automation.
Father-and-son team (from left) Phil Tredway, president, and Thomas, sales manager,
are guiding Erie Molded Plastics toward more proprietary molding to be less
dependent on custom molding projects.
processors along Erie’s W. Ridge Road.
Everything seemed to be going fine until
2001, when customers starting pulling
work and outsourcing it overseas.
“We saw a need to expand our customer
base and to
do more proprietary
processing so as to
be less dependent
on custom molding,”
recalls Tredway.
That led to son
Thomas, who previously
worked during
high school and
university summer
vacation periods on
the shop floor, joining as sales manager; he
already had sales experience as a stockbroker
on the East Coast.
One of the recent proprietary successes
Erie Molded Plastics points to is a tamper-evident
cap it designed, molded, and
is now marketing. A U.S. snack food
Investing in
automation is a big
priority with us. It doesn’t
cost jobs, but allows our
existing workers to do
more meaningful work
here at the plant.
producer that previously sourced such
work from molders in Brazil decided
to bring the work back home and was
looking to work with a Pennsylvaniabased
molder. “For them, a local company
was easier to
talk to and logistics
were faster as
well,” says Thomas
Tredway. Today
the company has
revenues of up to
$7 million/yr, processing
3 million
lb/yr (about 1361
tonnes/yr) of resin,
two-thirds of which
are commodity materials while the rest
is mainly glass-filled nylon 6.6.
But father Phil indicates that the
operations still need to achieve a more
competitive edge and the company has
a number of projects in the works
designed to cut its overall costs and
32 JULY/AUGUST 2009 • MODERN PLASTICS WORLDWIDE mpw.plasticstoday.com