Reed Rubber uses consistency to help cement 95-year legacy

ST. LOUIS—Consistency is tough to establish, especially for a long period of time.

But 95 years after its founding, Reed Rubber Products Inc. is still thriving.

The St. Louis-based custom rubber shop has changed significantly in its near-century history. The key to its consistency, however, isn't what it makes, but who makes it.

"I've seen lots of family businesses really struggle," said Clark Reed, the company's president and third-generation owner. "Power struggles, resentment, disputes over equity, position and compensation. It seems that these are problems more often than not among the people I know. We're just very fortunate that we've gotten along. I've gotten along with everyone in the family."

The firm focuses on extruded rubber products using primary thermoplastic vulcanizates—namely Santoprene and Sarlink. HVAC, transportation with some automotive aftermarket, and window glazing each make up at least 25 percent of the firm's $6.5 million in sales, with HVAC near 30 percent. Reed Rubber employs 32 at its 47,000-sq.-ft. facility with five extrusion lines and two 10-hour shifts.

This version of the company is drastically different from the one founded on Sept. 30, 1922. That's also just part of Reed's philosophy.

"We work a lot and talk a lot about finding new and better ways to do things," Reed said. "If somebody comes into the office six months later and doesn't see any change, we've lost some initiative. Things should look different. We should be doing things differently."

His grandfather, Benjamin E. Reed, founded the company as a rubber product sales organization. Clark Reed said in the 1920s, the firm would follow the railroad and sold goods up and down the tracks along the riverfront. Phones and other modern technologies were non-existent then, so doing business face-to-face was the only effective way to get things done.

The firm did not manufacture at the time, selling industrial rubber goods to construction companies and road crews were its main business. After World War II, Clark Reed's father, William, took over as president and the company began to offer die-cutting and fabrication services, which continued until Clark Reed joined the company in the 1980s.

William and Clark, along with Clark's uncle Nelson A. Reed (who died in July) and cousin Nelson F. Reed—who now owns his own sales company within the rubber industry and maintains a 50 percent stake of Reed Rubber Products—were all instrumental in helping the company evolve into what it is today. It all came from embracing something it had not done up until that point: Manufacture its own products.

Its largest customer, Cupples Products, which no longer is in business, had been approached by Monsanto to produce gaskets using its Santoprene TPVs, which, at the time, were a new development in the industry. Cupples balked at the request, but forwarded the company to Reed Rubber, which had sold these gaskets to Cupples for some time. Reed decided to take on the challenge.

The transition wasn't easy, but eventually the firm figured out a system that worked.

"The adaptation of statistical process controls on operations and using ISO 9001 management principles have made a substantial effect on the way we do business," Clark Reed said. "The way we run the business under ISO is far more quantitative and rigorous than we were used to. We're constantly balancing the metrics demanded by ISO against the acknowledgment that this is a company of individuals with their unique strengths and interests we can't ignore."

The shift from being solely a sales/die-cutting business to a manufacturing enterprise resulted in the creation of two units with those respective focuses. In 2008, Reed exited the die-cutting business. It accepted an opportunity to spin it off and merge it with another company. Reed now focuses solely on manufacturing and does very little fabrication.

Since the split, Reed Rubber Products has increased its sales by 250 percent. Clark Reed attributes a good portion of that success to a greater emphasis on the sales process.

"I've come to evolve," Clark Reed said. "My role was in operations, I never really got involved directly in sales. My approach was 'Build it and they will come.' As long as we do a really good job servicing our customers, they will find us and the word will spread. But I realized that there's no substitution for getting out in front of customers. I've developed an appreciation for and understanding of the formal sales process. You can't just be an excellent manufacturer. You still need to have boots on the ground."

Part of that evolution is continuing the trend of embracing new ideas as his son, Oliver Reed, begins to make his mark on the firm.

"I'm very different from my father and he's very different from his father," Clark Reed said. "In my view, the reason why so many family companies don't survive into the next generation is because everybody is different. My son is different from me. He has a different approach, and I'm trying to understand and embrace those ideas even though they're different from my own. My father gave me wide latitude. He had certain ideas of what I should be doing. He had his own ideas, and I was lucky that he gave me the opportunity to do things as I saw fit. You have to be open to new ideas."