Three years after its birth, ARPM works on building brand

INDIANAPOLIS—The Association for Rubber Products Manufacturers is building its brand one member at a time.

"Our goal is to infiltrate the industry," said Executive Director Troy Nix, also president of First Resource Inc. "Ultimately we want ARPM to be the household name, and the vision basically says the reason is because we help to make the executives running those companies better."

When it split from the Rubber Manufacturers Association, the group intended to craft an organization that better suited the needs of smaller businesses, specifically those in the non-tire sector. The ARPM seeks to bring more day-to-day value to members through networking, leveraging for discounts on supplies and weekly webinars to provide training for senior leaders of its member company.

"We look at ourselves as being more in the trenches than the RMA," Nix said. "We look at the RMA as having the bigger picture in mind. We're in the trenches day-by-day trying to help members get done what they need to get done."

Their vision did not include a presence in Washington, which the RMA has. Some members who split from the RMA did not think it was cost-effective.

"The pricing for RMA was higher," said Regan McHale, president of Eagle Elastomer Inc., and a member of the ARPM board of directors. "We were paying for people in Washington."

Everything the ARPM wants to accomplish starts with growth. The company launched with zero members. By January 2011—three months after the Elastomer Products Group officially had split from the RMA—it had 12.

On Aug. 28, the ARPM accepted its 50th member, Basic Rubber & Plastics Co., from Walled Lake, Mich. The company is the ARPM's 14th addition in 2013, exceeding the goal of 10 set by its board of directors.

"Growing memberships provide a value-proposition that's attractive to people," said Charlie Braun, president of Custom Rubber Corp., and an ARPM director. "That's really the main measure for the bulk of us who started out. The main challenge and objective was to create something that could grow in membership, and I think we've been very successful in that."

Joining the group in the last nine months were: Alternative Flash Inc.; Ashtabula Rubber Co.; Bando USA Inc.; JB Enterprises Parts Detailing L.L.C.; Jet Rubber Inc.; Lavelle Industries Inc.; Optibelt Corp.; Poly Seal Industries; SAS Rubber Co.; Seals Unlimited Inc.; SoffSeal Inc.; Wabtec Rubber Products (a division of Wabtec Corp.); and Woodland Rubber Co.

Each of these additions will help enhance the ARPM's ability to leverage better benefits for members. The organization has a partnership with W.W. Grainger Inc., which provides discounts on various operational supplies.

"What this does is it affords our members discount levels that they simply can't get on their own," Nix said. "As a result of that, many members are paying for their dues, and some just from one program alone."

Custom Rubber is one such member. Braun estimates he gets half of his dues paid back in the form of a Grainger reimbursement.

"Some companies get 100 percent of their dues paid back to them with savings through these programs," Braun said. "Others get a significant portion of their dues depending on how much they spend and what their dues are."

Braun said dues are calculated based on a company's sales. According to the ARPM's website there are seven tiers ranging from $999 to $15,000 a year.

The more members the group can pull from, it also can better leverage information. The ARPM identifies benchmarks and trends based upon membership to help members better understand the industry. Nix cited information that members can't get anywhere else, such as its wages and salary survey and other annual economic studies.

"If you aren't able to bring companies in a similar industry together, it's almost impossible to identify trends, best practices or benchmarks in the industry to help people understand where they need to go in order to improve," Nix said.

The ARPM provides larger networking opportunities for members. The organization tries to schedule multiple plant tours, an Environmental, Health and Safety conference and a benchmarking conference annually.

The ARPM invites prospective members to the tour events. Nix estimates there is an 80 percent chance they will join if they attend an event.

"It's hard to quantify what an association can bring," McHale said. "We're not selling products or giving things. We're trying to establish networks, do some training, manage the standards and give a voice to our group of companies."

One way the ARPM manages the standards is its presence on a number of international committees—such as the International Organization for Standardization and the American National Standards Institute—for hose, conveyor belts and power transmission. The group carries the financial burden of buying a membership and maintaining it, but it employs experts to help guide the committees in making decisions.

Additional annual fees for being part of those committees are also calculated based on a company's sales, Braun said. According to the ARPM's website, there are four tiers of dues ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 per committee. The health and safety committee is free.

The group also has established a website for members to network daily. Members with like-minded goals can track each other down for assistance, especially when they need immediate help.

Recently Braun needed feedback on how to perform routine maintenance on his vertical injection equipment, specifically about whether or not a harness or a ladder would be better suited for the job.

"(Our team has the chance) to network with other professionals that work in similar areas," Braun said. "Periodically they'll have a conference call with HR managers. I have a younger HR person, and he can get on the call, ask questions, listen to discussions and collect contact information from people on the call."

McHale also said the networking aspect of the ARPM—including the events and plant tours—brought the most value to his company. Every time officials from his company have attended the safety conference, they have brought back new ideas to incorporate.

"We create extreme camaraderie between our members," Nix said. "To me that is what separates our vision from the vision of any other association."

The No. 1 priority for the organization is to continue to grow. McHale said he'd like to see it at 100 members.

"For us to be more viable, we need to increase our membership," McHale said. "If we can increase our membership, hopefully we can reduce our dues structure even more, and that will help more companies jump in with us."

To get there, Braun said, the ARPM just needs to keep doing more of the same. If it continues to enhance the programs it will continue to thrive.

"Growing is the No. 1 objective right now," Nix said. "We also have to continue to add value. We haven't been perfect; we've had a couple of members join initially, and we lost them. It's never going to be perfect in terms of 100 percent retention. We have to add more dollars and cents value so that people see an immediate return on our investment."