Rogers plans market growth for Griswold

MOOSUP, Conn.—One year after Rogers Corp. acquired Griswold L.L.C., the two companies are finding new ways to integrate and benefit each other.

That interaction is part of what makes Dave Sherman, senior product line manager at Rogers, excited to take on a new role as sponge senior product manager for Griswold, a manufacturer of custom engineered cellular elastomer and high performance polyurethane, he said.

"We've been lucky that this integration as a whole has a couple very good things going for it. One is that the cultures of the two companies were very similar in being customer-focused, developing products for a particular customer rather than for a broad commodity market," Sherman said.

That takes a way of thinking and building interior systems of development and operations to be flexible enough to meet individual customer needs, a similar mindset for both companies, he said. Griswold also has always had strong products that fit customer specifications, and deep relationships. Even before last July's acquisition, Rogers had wanted to bring Griswold into its fold, Sherman said.

"I've worked for Rogers for 35 years, and for all the years I've worked for Rogers, we've wanted to buy Griswold," he said. "They have always been very savvy. They've been kind of a plucky competitor in some areas. … Griswold had just done a surprising good job and now it's a pleasure to walk in and not have to change a whole lot. Things are already going well. We can just add to it."

Global scale

One of the things that Rogers can bring to Griswold is the addition of a more global reach to its markets, one of Sherman's new responsibilities, he said. Rogers operates facilities in North America, Asia and Europe, while Griswold operates out of its facility in Moosup, serving primarily the North American market.

"We hope to be able to replicate the successes that Griswold has had, but just at a little bit more of a global scale," Sherman said.

Another strategic fit for Rogers is that it has more of an industrial focused team, where Griswold has tended to be more consumer focused. It has strong applications in markets like yoga mats, mouse pads and footwear, Sherman said. But with the more industrial guidance of Rogers, Griswold can look to wider markets and selling based on a specification rather than whether a product feels good for a consumer.

"Another thing I think Rogers brings to Griswold is a hope to industrialize new products as well, make them more industrial," he said. "That fits in with my role, because I know this market well, and it's often just a small tweak to make a product meet a specification that can earn it a place in automotive, as an example."

Global automotive serves as a "glaring opportunity" for Griswold, and while the company has done well getting applications in a segment of the North American automotive market, Rogers has more experience on a larger stage, Sherman said. Griswold has the market potential to solve problems for automotive manufacturers in Europe and Asia as its focus in the short term. Looking at automotive or similar markets isn't what Sherman would call a shift in focus as much as adding to Griswold's range.

"We're well set up to continue to focus on our relationships and growing the part of the business that Griswold did very well at, and add in more industrial kinds of applications," he said.

Rogers is looking for growth from Griswold, starting a planning process now to map out the next five years, Sherman said. That team is looking at Griswold's processes and Rogers will be investing in the future. While some might acquire a new company and disintegrate its parts into the larger organization, that's not the goal for Rogers. The company is starting with a focus on processes that make Griswold's overall integration easier, including updating systems and investing in safety procedures to set a baseline for long-term growth.

"We have a good capacity, so we don't see an immediate need to add capacity, but there's always tweaks to equipment to make new products that will help solve customers' problems," Sherman said. "I don't see an immediate need to put a plant in Europe or a global expansion of production. … We're using our channels to market, which are very strong industrially globally, to drive sales."

New developments

Going forward, Sherman hopes to see a continual flow of new products coming from Griswold as it develops its connection with Rogers, he said. While Griswold isn't likely to bring a whole new chemistry to Rogers, chances are better that they'll find new ways to apply a current chemistry. Those benefits go both ways, as Griswold brings the beginnings of some development work in chemistries that Rogers has never worked in.

"We hope to be adding to our family of chemistries that we have to offer in foam and sponge products," he said. "Today we offer neoprene and EPDM, but we think there's a great opportunity to formulate those to meet specific customer needs, where today we have a very basic offering. We think there's a great room for expansion."

Sherman said he's particularly excited about EPDM as a growing product on a global scale, which can fit into a market and application space where no other Rogers products currently fit.

"It's kind of an open playing field for us," he said.

One benefit of having Griswold's facility near to Rogers' center for research and development location has been increased interaction between those teams, Sherman said. The proximity means Griswold can take advantage of R&D resources more easily, as well as the nearby technicians. It also allows Rogers' R&D team to quickly visit the production site to see how plans can be realized and development processes can be integrated.

"I think that's one of the things that has gone really well with the integration," Sherman said. "That's why I'm particularly upbeat about our future in developing products for future customer needs."