BRC banks on frugality, family values for continued success

FORT WAYNE, Ind.—BRC Rubber & Plastics Inc. may be known for custom molding, but you could say the company has been engineering good night's sleeps since 1973.

Yes, BRC designs and manufactures everything from grommets and bellows to seals and gaskets, serving automotive and industrial. But each part is built with the quality that customers need and is backed by the service and delivery they expect.

You know, the kinds of things that won't keep customers up at night.

And that, right there, that's the heart of BRC, said Chuck Chaffee, company co-founder and CEO. That point hit home during a recent conversation with a customer.

"He said, 'Chuck, the one thing I want you to know about your company is your company gives me a good night's sleep,' " Chaffee told Rubber News. "… He knows he can trust us. He knows we can come through. He knows we will be there for him when he needed us."

Likewise, Chaffee is there for BRC. Even today, 50 years after opening the company's doors. At 81, he's still involved in the day-to-day operations, guiding and leading the company into its second half-century.

And through it all, he hasn't lost sight of that business plan he and his late brother, company co-founder Cliff Chaffee, had on day one.

"We didn't have a five-year business plan except to survive," Chuck Chaffee once joked while giving a keynote speech at a Rubber News conference.

But survive BRC has. And it has done so by leaning into its greatest strengths, competing on price while winning on quality.

That plan also has allowed the company to thrive.

"When my brother and I started out … he said, 'We have got to have a goal.' I said, 'OK. Let's have a goal to build a company like dad's (with) 100 people that sold $1 million worth of rubber parts.'

"Then, in 1986, in one day, we took over $10 million worth of orders from General Motors for oil pan gaskets. My brother said to me, 'What about our goal?' I said, 'Well, I guess we met it.' "

Chuck and Cliff Chaffee knew more than a thing or two about rubber, automotive and running a business when they launched Bluffton Rubber Co.—later renamed BRC Rubber & Plastics—in 1973.

The two had, after all, grown up in the rubber industry, working for their father and watching as he built Ligonier Rubber Co.

Their father sold that company in 1968, and the Chaffee brothers followed new paths.

Chuck Chaffee went on to work as general manager of Wolcottville Rubber before purchasing a Culligan Water business in 1970. Cliff Chaffee, meanwhile, put his heart into engineering. He went on to work six years with Ford, from 1970-76.

But even as they worked to establish their careers elsewhere, the rubber industry called them home.

"There is an old saying that once you get carbon black in your veins, it's addictive," Chuck Chaffee said.

So, in 1973, the two opened Bluffton Rubber in Bluffton, Ind. And as the fledgling company found its footing, the two continued working their previous full-time jobs, Chuck Chaffee at Culligan and Cliff Chaffee at Ford.

During those early days, Cliff Chaffee spent just about every hour he could at Bluffton, often sleeping on cots at the facility just to ensure that operations continued running and orders were filled as promised.

By its fifth anniversary, the business was thriving and both brothers were able to focus their full attention on growing it.

"We, my brother and I, … we just had a common goal to keep the company going and treat our people the way that we would want to be treated," Chuck Chaffee said. "And we exceed our customers' expectations."

A lot of that, Chuck Chaffee said, had to do with his brother. Cliff Chaffee was a brilliant engineer, a tinkerer who refused to believe that there wasn't a better way to do—or build—something.

"He was never satisfied, he always wanted it to be better," Chuck Chaffee said. "He was kind of a perfectionist. His desk looked like Einstein's desk with piles of this and piles of that, but he knew what those piles were."

All the big ideas and unique perspectives that piled up on Cliff Chaffee's desk pushed the company to do better, too. It was the perfect complement to Chuck Chaffee's entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen.

"We are very frugal, and we didn't overexert ourselves," Chuck Chaffee said, noting that the company was lucky enough—smart enough—to focus its investments and growth opportunities on the right moments, right decisions and right companies.

Yes, the custom molding firm has grown through acquisition over the years, bringing on expertise and talent that has helped it to thrive in the years since.

One of those companies BRC purchased? Ligonier Rubber Co.

In 1988, 20 years after their father sold the business, the Chaffee brothers bought it back, and in doing so added an extensive customer base that included General Motors, Ford and others.

Thirteen years after that, when the company invested to add plastic injection molding, it changed its name to BRC Rubber & Plastics to capture the breadth of its capabilities in the moniker.

BRC, which began with 16 employees and one location, today has nearly 500 employees and five manufacturing sites in Indiana—in Bluffton, Ligonier, Churubusco, Hartford City and Montpelier.

Additionally, BRC operates a headquarters and technical center in Fort Wayne, Ind., and maintains a small office in Auburn Hills, Mich.

While it's true that BRC has built restful nights for its customers since its founding, the founders themselves didn't always have the luxury of sleeping soundly.

BRC has navigated its fair share of challenges over the years, coming out stronger in the end every time. It has faced recessions both small and Great, a global pandemic, United Auto Workers strikes and even unexpected weather events.

"This has not been without its nights of not much sleep," Chuck Chaffee said of running the business. "We have had a tornado come through. We have had all kinds of stuff happen."

There was, for instance, the blizzard of 1978.

"The factory was five years old, and we got (that storm) here in Indiana," Chuck Chaffee said. "… I had just bought a snowmobile … and I used the snowmobile to go get people at their house and bring them into work."

Mike Meyer, BRC's executive vice president, said some of BRC's most challenging moments have come in the last two decades or so, particularly as global competition has become fiercer.

China, Mexico, India and others have challenged U.S. parts producers on price.

That includes BRC.

"Many of our customers that were purchasing used to be located close by and now will be half a world away. That is really different," Meyer said.

When BRC launched in 1973, it served U.S.-based auto makers with U.S.-made parts. But as the world got smaller with the rise of globalization, that changed. Suddenly those U.S. manufacturers could source parts from anywhere on the globe, making price the key factor in winning bids.

For small companies like BRC, that's challenging, Chuck Chaffee said.

"We couldn't start a company like this today," he said. "It would be impossible."

That competition made frugality and financial planning key to BRC's success. And that strength was proven out during the Great Recession, which was tough for BRC and small companies like it.

"We have been a debt-free company and going into those periods of time, being debt-free has allowed you to sustain yourself through," Meyer said. "To enter those periods of time, it gives you a leg up."

Chuck Chaffee agreed.

"We are very financially disciplined," he said. "That is what has gotten us business in the past. (Customers said,) 'Hey, you don't have any debt. You are going to be there for me.' No bank was controlling our destiny."

Ultimately, though, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that would weigh heaviest on BRC.

"With the pandemic, it was: where is the light at the end of the tunnel?" Meyer said. "Just the unknown of everything, that was a big factor."

When automotive production stopped, BRC was left with few options when it came to keeping the company running. It was forced to lay off a number of people, though Payment Protection Program loan support did help to keep some of the management team in place.

"When COVID did hit, General Motors had us make seven different products for the ventilators (the auto maker made)," Chuck Chaffee said. "We were selected as a source, and we made parts in days and hours, not weeks and months."

That was one of the hardest times for BRC, not just because of the tough decisions that had to be made, but because of the losses it would suffer in the end.

Cliff Chaffee died Oct. 30, 2020, after battling COVID-19 himself.

And that loss added to the uncertainties of moving forward.

But move forward BRC did. One day at a time. Just as it had always done—with quality products and dedicated teams.

BRC is built on the little things.

Well, the kinds of little things that are really big things in the end. Things like integrity, kindness and tenacity.

And really, Chuck Chaffee wouldn't have it any other way. That is just the way things are done in Indiana.

"We're Hoosiers," Chuck Chaffee said. "… Midwestern values are different. Your word, your handshake (means something)."

As the company grew over the years, the leadership never lost sight of those values. That meant every person who joined the company, joined the Chaffee family. Doing so comes with big expectations to represent exactly the kind of values that are built into BRC framework.

"We regard all of our people as part of our BRC family," Chuck Chaffee said. "We have to enjoy our jobs, we have to do a good job and be proud of what we do. That is the culture of the company. Our team, our employees they come first. That is just the way it has to be."

Honestly, Chuck Chaffee said, without those people, BRC may not have survived as long as it has.

"People are the whole thing," Chuck Chaffee said. "A press goes up and down and makes parts, but you have to have the human capital that cares about making a quality product. … When we get a quality award it is not BRC, it is our people getting the quality awards."

In the end, it is the seemingly little things—the Midwest values, people, passion and frugality—that have carried BRC through five decades. And no matter how much the world may change, it is those things that will carry BRC to its centennial.

Chuck Chaffee is sure of it.

"We are here today. We will be here tomorrow," Chuck Chaffee said. "… I still think we have got years to go yet."