Slow and steady works for Tahoma Rubber

BARBERTON, Ohio—Tahoma Rubber and Plastics Inc. has been content to grow steadily year after year without making a lot of noise about its success.

Instead, the company has relied heavily on providing quality products and service to support tire makers and others in the rubber industry as a springboard for growth. And that's worked for the Barberton-based firm.

Most recently, the company expanded its capacity and capabilities with the addition of new machinery while bolstering its work force with new personnel.

Tahoma isn't a rubber compounder, but a specialized recycler and processor of materials, Chief Operating Officer Steve Nieto said.

Basically "the company serves the tire and rubber industry by taking uncured rubber compounds, uncured rubber compounds with fibers (commonly known as fabric friction) and scrap poly film" that are processed and recycled into new products.

"The tire producers count on us to protect their intellectual property for rubber compounds by denaturing their products by blending with several sources of material so there can be no reverse engineering of specific compounds," he said

"We work closely with the factories to help them minimize any waste rubber materials," he added. "We are audited regularly to assure them of our security and capabilities."

New additions

To further help the company solidify its services, it added a 170 mm gear pump strainer that allows for the removal of cured particles or contamination from rubber compounds at its facility in Abbeville, S.C., and a new 700-ton compression molding press at the firm's Barberton facility that boosts its molding capacity.

Tahoma also created the capacity to produce sheeted fiber-filled rubber compounds at the Abbeville site.

Over the last three years the company has added three other compression presses and a 60 inch mill at its Barberton factory, according to Chuck Daugherty, the firm's director of operations. "In the past seven years, our growth has doubled."

Employment at the Barberton plant, which serves as the company's headquarters and home for its support staff, has increased 20 percent in the last three years to about 120. The Abbeville facility also has added personnel and now employs about 40 people.

Among the people the company added was Jim McCrary, who came aboard as sales manager of the firm. He has extensive experience in the plastic film, packaging, textile and coatings industries. Most recently, he served as North American sales manager for Transworld Plastic Films.

Tahoma's new employees are integrated into a work force that has a great deal of experience, according to Daugherty, who has been with the company for more than 30 years. "Our supervisors in the plant are all groomed by the company over the years and promoted when they are ready. It's a home grown crew."

Daugherty began working for the firm as a production employee and worked up to plant manager before he became the director of operations six years ago.

Each of Tahoma's plants normally operates five days a week, 24 hours a day. However, because of the firm's growth spurt, both recently began operating seven days a week.

Meeting demand

"Both (plants) have grown over the past few years and we are targeting growth to meet demand," Nieto said. The addition of the new equipment helped create the need for more people to operate the machinery in the production department, he said, adding that the firm also has expanded its maintenance, sales and fleet staffing.

He noted that the new machinery was added to help meet the needs of its customers. For instance, he said, its gear pump strainer will allow it to expand the markets it serves, provide new services and upgrade incoming materials.

In addition, Tahoma operates its own fleet of trucks and trailers. It places empty trailers in plants that are filled by production workers at the sites, Nieto said. When they are full, Tahoma picks up the trailers and replaces them with empty containers.

"None of our competitors have this capability," he maintained.

The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tahoma Enterprises, a private equity group based in Wooster, Ohio. In addition to Tahoma Rubber and Plastics, Tahoma Enterprises owns five other companies involved in metal working and plastic injection molding.

Founded in 1965 as Rondy and Company, a family owned business, Tahoma Enterprises purchased the rubber and plastics business in 2011. Today, Nieto said, Tahoma Rubber and Plastics is a small firm that's growing into a medium-sized company. "It's a great place to work," Daugherty added.

Tahoma operates equipment not commonly used in the rubber industry, Nieto noted, including large guillotines, cracker and refiner mills, and has very large grinding capabilities.

While the company is interested in new markets, "right now we are focused on meeting the needs of the tire producers weighed with the needs of our customers," according to Nieto. There are currently many existing opportunities available for the company to help solve problems, he said.

Tahoma also molds numerous rubber products, Daugherty said, including splash guards, dock bumpers and other bumpers.

On the plastic side of the company's business, "we take scrap poly film, grind it and recast new film, which we consume ourselves plus sell to other companies," he said.

Tahoma's rubber side is much larger than the plastics side of the business, he said, "but our plastics side is now growing faster. Both our plants have similar capabilities for rubber and plastic processing. Barberton is the only place we do compression molding right now."