Best Places to Work: ChemSpec keeps focus on quality, service

UNIONTOWN, Ohio—ChemSpec Ltd. President and CEO Dave Moreland has known for years that his company would only be successful if he hired and kept team members dedicated to quality and customer service.

He became a majority owner in the Uniontown-based specialty chemical distribution firm two decades ago, and is proud that ChemSpec has expanded into new fields over the years. That growth has been fueled by low employee turnover and elevated levels of customer satisfaction for one of the nine firms to earn the status of 2023 Rubber News Best Places to Work.

ChemSpec now is majority owned by parent company specialty chemicals distributor Safic-Alcan after Moreland sold his majority ownership in 2021, but the small, family-owned company environment he built remains. That is emphasized by ChemSpec's website, which proclaims it as a "local company making a global impact."

As a distributor of specialty and commodity chemical additives and specialty polymers, Uniontown-based ChemSpec has grown from four employees to well over 40 in 20 years. Moreland is looking to hire additional staff in 2023, while expanding into secondary sectors like cosmetics, adhesives, sealants and coatings. These growth sectors can help support ChemSpec's core business in the automotive industry, as it supplies a wealth of materials used in products from tires and belts to seals and gaskets.

Moreland long has held an affinity for colleagues who have helped to build ChemSpec into a lean, modern rubber supplier. One of the ways to show that appreciation for their dedication and commitment to customer service is by providing the highest quality health care coverage possible, including company deposits into employee-held Health Savings Accounts and direct payments to employees to cover health care premiums.

ChemSpec also provides stipends to team members for health club memberships, a strategy Safic-Alcan uses globally as well.

As the company has grown, so has its reliance on a budding group of professionals. The COVID-19 pandemic was challenging for ChemSpec as it was for most industrial firms, placing a strain on the company's supply chain connections and forcing delays of chemical imports from around the world for a period of weeks or months. Many of those supply chain issues have dissipated, although challenges still remain.

Today, ChemSpec receives an average of 80-100 containers monthly, and relies on its supply chain professionals and customer service staff to maintain existing relationships while building new ones—all designed to exceed customer needs.

Perhaps the newest challenge is one that is familiar to rubber firms everywhere—cost. While customers often were desperate to get the products they needed at any price early on during the pandemic, that sentiment has shifted as market supply increased backlog and demand softened.

"It's back to a buyer's market, so we have to be cognizant of our margins," Moreland said.

One way to do that is to shorten the lead time of the product delivery as much as possible. ChemSpec relies on its professionals to do just that, since getting materials is no longer the issue.

"We had built up safety stock during the pandemic, and now we're working our way through that," Moreland said. "Now we have plenty of products."

As such, the cost of ocean freight is falling, but workable margins still loom as a challenge.

Many of ChemSpec's early employees were relatives of Moreland, as his son, three sons-in-law and a daughter-in-law were all involved in the business shortly after he took a controlling interest. Over the last 20 years, that ratio has shifted with practically all new hires coming from outside the family, many of whom have years of industry experience.

While staff turnover remains low, ChemSpec has experienced the impact of a tight labor market when hiring for open positions. Backfilling of key or entry level positions is hard because of the industry and/or sales requirements many of the positions have. "It takes a couple of years to really understand the market if you never worked in (the rubber industry) before," Moreland said.

ChemSpec collaborates with headhunters, but has experienced recent success turning some contract positions into full-time roles. Part of that approach requires Moreland and his fellow leaders to develop employees, giving them responsibilities rather than tasks. He strongly believes that every team member needs to be challenged with decision-making responsibilities, which requires them to be more engaged in the business.

"It's important for our team to know lead times, trends and competitor process," Moreland said. "We always look to empower them to make informed decisions."

To ensure that, ChemSpec places a prominent level of importance on every position, from customer service to machining and sales. Any customer-facing position has the ability to provide a long-lasting first impression, something that Moreland never forgets. While he plans to work for a few more years, he is looking forward to seeing his younger colleagues take even more critical roles in strategic decisions.

"We always talk to the team about the importance of their roles and how they feel they are doing in their job," Moreland said. "Without our employees, we never would have made it this far."