Vision 2023: R.D. Abbott looks to grow, make connections

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—Ask Jerry McCall what matters most in the rubber industry, and he'll give you the same answer every time: People.

That, he'll say, is just the way R.D. Abbott sees it.

It's even built into the company's core values: "… we always put people and the service of others first," the website states. "We operate for long-term partnerships, not short-term profits."

So for R.D. Abbott, the business of rubber is about connections.

Not just any connections. The right connections.

And that—connecting the right customers with the right suppliers and materials—is what McCall says sets R.D. Abbott apart.

"At the end of the day, it's all about enriching lives," McCall, R.D. Abbott's vice president of sales and marketing, told Rubber News at the most recent International Elastomer Conference.

The Garden Grove, Calif.-headquartered distributor's commitment to ensuring the right rubber industry connections plays out in its mission to provide a full range of services, including distribution, research, lab testing, process engineering and customized elastomer solutions.

But it also plays out in the company's own educational efforts along with its support for programs, initiatives and associations, including the ACS Rubber Division. And in addition to education, R.D. Abbott also focuses on attracting young talent to the industry and encouraging more diversified work forces.

"That is really what it is all about: helping people," McCall said. "Whether we are selling product or not, the exchange of information and education is vital to the industry staying ahead of the curve so to speak. I am a big proponent of the fact that we are here to help. I don't care if you buy a pound (of product) from us or a million pounds, if you want to work with us and understand things deeper, we are here to help you in that regard."

And all of that—the education, the connecting, the innovating—is shaping R.D. Abbott's vision for 2023 and beyond. And because of that, McCall believes there are great opportunities on the horizon.

Good things, yes.

Challenges? Sure.

After all, the last few years have proven just how challenging things can be with supply chain hiccups, labor shortages, inflation and everything in between. But those challenges, McCall said, also proved just how resilient the rubber industry—and R.D. Abbott, in particular—really is. And that resiliency, he said, is sure to manifest itself in growth.

"I think it is going to be much the same (from R.D. Abbott), just growing it in terms of scale," McCall said of the year ahead. "But, again, we don't know what we don't know. We have been through a two-year period here of uncertainty where we are doing things that we never would have dreamed of doing.

"Putting customer service in your home office? If you would have come to me three years ago and said we'd being doing that I'd have told you: 'You are crazy. There is no way we can ever do that.' But we have done it successfully, and it is working."

Still, there's something to be said about every small return to normalcy and the possibilities that something as simple as face-to-face meetings can bring, McCall said.

Because even with the challenges that rolled in with 2020—challenges that may have lingered or even begotten new challenges—R.D. Abbott's aim had been to hold steady.

And it did.

Starting this year, though, you'll start to see that change.

"We really want to see what this post-COVID world looks like with economics and supply," McCall said. "I'll be honest, these last couple years have been filled with nonvalue-added work, which is reconfirming orders, moving ship dates, apologizing for not having materials, escalation calls. I mean that is what we have spent the last two years working on, and it's really nonvalue-added. It's been sustain, not grow.

"And we are ready to grow," McCall said. "When you talk about an organization like ours … sustaining is not where we are happy. Growing is where we are happy.

"So we look forward to 2023. I think what can be a main driver is to get back to growing in terms of relationships, technical knowledge, sales to an extent. I think we are still a couple years out from growing sales substantially, but I think '23 is going to be a protect, block and tackle type year."

When you look at R.D. Abbott's future, you can't help but see the role that NovationSi plays as it looks to grow its connections—especially as the company continues to expand its expertise in the liquid silicone rubber arena.

"The CAGR of liquid silicone is greater than high consistency rubber," McCall said. "So that tells us that the future is bright, (given that) LSR can be run automated. … You can make high-detailed parts very quick and many of them under minimal supervision. So LSR is going to be a future in terms of automated processes moving forward. And the properties of the materials are just incredible."

With these LSR trends and possibilities in mind, R.D. Abbott in 2021 christened NovationSi, a 127,000-sq.-ft. facility in Barberton, Ohio, that houses a 60,000-sq.-ft. warehouse. The remaining 67,000 square feet is dedicated to customer service and research labs.

"Just to see the plant come together, it was a monumental step for us. It was a huge purchase and a big expansion for R.D. Abbott," McCall said.

Huge, he said, because it deepened the distributor's rubber industry roots. And it did so right in the heart of the rubber industry itself—the Akron area.

"That is the North American rubber capital," McCall said. "I served in the Rubber Division for a number of years … and there is no doubt Ohio is where it is. There is Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania—that quadrant—but Ohio is the hub. That is where a lot of companies are, therefore, having a warehouse, being able to service there, that played into the decision in large part."

With NovationSi serving as a backbone, R.D. Abbott has been able to—with partners including Elmet, Arburg, Kipe Molds and Alpha Technologies—offer LSR education opportunities, both in-person and online.

More than that, NovationSi offers something bigger: innovation potential.

"We do use the Barberton facility (to) make color masterbatches, so we do colors for HCR and LSR, but we are looking to use the facility to possibly do some custom mixing of LSR," McCall said. "Nobody out there is doing it on a large-scale basis, but modifiers—whether you want to modify tensile or you modify how it burns (and) put a fire retardant in it—all of these things can be added to liquid systems."

McCall was quick to emphasize that a growing focus on the potential of LSR doesn't mean the company is abandoning its focus in other areas of the rubber industry.

In fact, McCall said, it's the opposite. R.D. Abbott is taking a big picture approach to connect every one of its partners and customers.

"We are still focused where we have always been focused: in rubber," McCall said. "Rubber is our core competency. I don't see us going into adjacent markets at this point. … Rubber is where we have developed our expertise and our core competencies, so we are going to remain true to it.

"Outside of LSR, we represent a lot of different suppliers, and we see synergies with these products that are miscible, maybe something could be combined or maybe packaged differently," McCall said. "We like to work with our suppliers to use our facility to their advantage to further their product line and develop technologies that will benefit all of us."

Those are benefits, he said, that come from making the right connections and putting people first.