American Biltrite: Still tried and true, a century through

ORLANDO, Fla.—Most rubber product companies—or companies in any industry, for that matter—don't make it to the century mark and beyond without an honest appraisal of historical successes and challenges alike.

The 116-year-old American Biltrite Inc., based in Sherbrooke, Quebec, finds itself in the midst of another peak "reappraisal" of sorts, a transition period that has the company focusing on successful legacy markets, investing in new mixing efficiencies and embracing sustainability through innovation.

The 300-person company has two main manufacturing divisions today—industrial rubber and commercial flooring—at its 400,000-sq.-ft. headquarters, which sits east of Montreal and slightly southwest of Quebec City.

Together, the locations form an industrial triangle. To address this regional and greater U.S. demand, the supplier of mud flaps, flooring tile and sheet rubber has pivoted away from footwear entirely.

"Footwear is where we started in 1913," said Frederic Guerin, senior vice president of sales and marketing at American Biltrite. "This was our original business. ... We sold heels, soles and all other accessories related to footwear. This is what put us in business."

Over the years, consumers increasingly began to buy new shoes rather than repair old ones. And this ultimately pushed American Biltrite out of the market.

"We had some business at the end, but it was difficult for us in a smaller market," Guerin said. "It was time for us to focus on what we have become today."

What the business has become, Guerin said, is a vertically oriented legacy supplier of sheet rubber and commercial tile, both rubber and vinyl.

"We have been in flooring for more than 60 years, with plenty of innovation through the years," Guerin said. "And we have been in industrial rubber since the 1940s."

Guerin and Trevor McMillan, vice president of sales and marketing for North America for the firm, sat down with Rubber News March 19 at the Gasket Fabricators Association's Gasketing/Converting Expo in Florida.

"The thing for us with footwear is that COVID helped put the final dagger in it," McMillan said.

With its headquarters in Sherbrooke, American Biltrite has warehouse locations across the U.S. and Canada.

The company continues to invest in Sherbrooke, in both sustainability and production processes. The company announced an initial $12 million investment in Sherbrooke renovations and upgrades in 2017.

"Over the past four years, we have developed a means by which we can reuse some rubber as a raw material, and not by way of a chemical process," Guerin said. "We reprocess and recycle the material back into the original product."

For American Biltrite, that means a truly circular life for its rubber rolls of raw material.

"We are putting the same rubber into the same end product," McMillan said. "This is a true breakthrough in the industry. It truly is a circular solution, unprecedented in the industry."

The patented system used by American Biltrite is the result of a pilot program that ran for about a year, and the first rubber products are being sold this year, Guerin said.

"And in the long term, we can help other people with our processes. ... There are 21 rubber-related businesses in the triangle," he said. "We are ahead of the curve in this regard."

The company also recently put another $7 million into a new gravity-fed mixing system.

"We are innovators in the way we do things," Guerin said. "Most of our equipment is not off-the-shelf equipment. There is always some adaptation to what we do.

"And our latest investment is a new automated mixing and feeding system."

Guerin said the company tried to find a consulting firm that would assist American Biltrite in designing the new system. But the requirements were so incredibly precise, as the company needed to control ingredients in a masterbatch down to 10 grams per 500-pound batch.

"And there was no firm to help us with that," Guerin said.

McMillan noted that the building is 110 years old itself, with four levels.

"So essentially we used gravity to our advantage," McMillan said.

Shutting down footwear production and transitioning some warehouse space, Guerin said, has led to more room for industrial rubber and mud flap production.

In turn, the new feeder system has led to greater efficiencies—and volume—within the rubber compounding space.

"It's one of the largest investments we have ever made," Guerin said. "It changed the way we work. ... It is safer for our people. It's easier for them as they do not have to lift heavy weights all day long.

"By shutting down footwear ... we gained in precision-level compounding and overall volume."

The only finished good that American Biltrite produces is the mud flap. The company has pivoted once again, this time in mud flap sales by geography.

"We are launching mud flap products in the U.S. this week," McMillan said. "We think we have the premier mud flap on the market, one that already is big with OEMs in Canada."

The labor market has balanced out for the firm as well, an employment pool that proved to be "very, very difficult" for American Biltrite only three years ago.

"When COVID hit, it was very hard to find employees," Guerin said. "We realized we needed to use the employees we had to do better jobs with different things."

American Biltrite does not use a lot of automation, Guerin said, precisely because it employs so many different processes.

"Now, we have all the employees that we need," he said. "We are in a good situation right now, ready to grow with our employees the way we want to. We continue to expand and grow."

McMillan said further investment may be made in overall volume, protecting against the immediate demand, overpurchasing and subsequent drawdowns that plagued the COVID era.

"From a supply chain standpoint, some investment is going to be made in volume to protect ourselves," he said. "But things are going very well. And the recycling is not just helping the environment, it is a program that we project will drive us for years to come.

"We will always focus on the milk runs, our traditional customers. But we are also looking bigger, into key alliances and partnerships."

Founded in 1908, American Biltrite (Canada) Ltd. is owned and managed by the Marcus family.

In 1913, the American Biltrite plant in Sherbrooke opened and continues to thrive with "a team dedicated to the highest standards of quality and service."

The company is ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified.