Goldsmith & Eggleton, CPA rubber business come together under HB Chemical umbrella

TWINSBURG, Ohio—Under Belgian parent company Ravago, two Northeast Ohio companies are realigning to bring reprocessed rubber manufacturing and chemical distribution services under one roof.

HB Chemical Corp., based in Twinsburg, will absorb Goldsmith & Eggleton L.L.C., located just south of the 48-person HB Chemical in Wadsworth, to bring "total coast-to-coast coverage by an experienced sales force, comprehensive technical and customer support services and an unparalleled portfolio of product offerings."

In addition, Des Moines, Iowa-based Channel Prime Alliance, a vertical distribution business within Ravago that is lateral to HB Chemical, is seeing its rubber business realigned under HB Chemical.

About 70 percent of CPA's distribution goes to the plastic resin industry, while about 30 percent is rubber chemical distribution.

The realignment for the three businesses took effect Jan. 1, according to Joe Moran, vice president and director of HB Chemical.

"The goal of this consolidation is to offer the rubber industry a diverse range of products, all sourced from one company, without sacrificing the excellent customer service for which CPA, G&E and HB Chemical are known," Moran told Rubber News Feb. 17.

All G&E sales and customer service inquiries, including those for the new Ravaflex line (EPDM, butyl and SBR), will move to HB Chemical.

The G&E manufacturing facility and in-house laboratory will remain in Wadsworth and the firm will retain its own branding.

HB Chemical will manage the new combined rubber business out of its offices in Twinsburg.

"We are increasing our capabilities while never losing that smaller, flexible company feel," Moran said. "And that really is the genius of Ravago, as they allowed us room to do that. They did not come in and corporatize us. They see our numbers."

Those numbers, Moran estimates, with G&E's manufacturing and CPA's rubber chemical lines included, should be around $350 million in sales this year.

Because CPA, a larger distributor than HB Chemical, works primarily in plastics, there existed only one redundancy in the rubber chemical distribution line when the realignment took place earlier this year.

"HB Chemical is all rubber," Moran said. "CPA did not sell everything that went into rubber—and we sell everything that goes into rubber."

CPA will retain its autonomy on the plastics side within Ravago, Moran said.

"These synergies are not necessarily assisting HB Chemical, they are assisting the customer," Moran said. "Our singular focus is the rubber industry, and this (realignment) really put the focus on that."

HB Chemical, through its major upstream suppliers including Orion Engineered Carbons, Evonik and Dow, distributes just about every additive necessary for rubber production. These include fire retardants, carbon black, zinc oxide and stearic acid, among many other ingredients.

The custom compounding industry and the tire industry, in equal parts, form the vast majority of HB Chemical's customers, Moran said.

While CPA also is a distributor, Goldsmith & Eggleton brings its reprocessed rubber manufacturing directly under the HB Chemical umbrella.

"This realignment will allow for a more complete product offering and focused sales approach to our customers," said Rob Eggleton, business manager for G&E. "The combined expertise of these teams under one roof will enable our customers to streamline their raw materials sourcing."

Jeff Brabham, business manager for elastomers at G&E, said this is beneficial for Ravago, HB Chemical and customers alike.

"The technical expertise that HB Chemical brings is very important to us," Brabham told Rubber News. "This brings us a technical, rubber-centric focus, something we did not have previously.

"This is beneficial for Ravago and our customers."

Reprocessed polymers and masterbatches (essentially a starter mix containing carbon black that places the customer a couple steps toward their compounding goals) offer another option to tire and non-tire rubber product-makers alike.

"There is no heat element to what we are doing," Brabham said. "Essentially we are taking waste streams from ExxonMobil, Arlanxeo and other upstream suppliers, diverting what could have gone to a landfill and repurposing it.

"We take the waste stream rubber, clean it, dry it, rebale it and sell it as a cost-down material for our customers."

With EPDM and butyl rubbers in short supply, customers can choose a reprocessed rubber rather than something off-grade.

"These are products made to customer specifications," Moran said. "So you can count on it in your compound. Maybe this helps a customer meet their needs, especially if they are on allocation."

Brabham reiterated that reprocessed rubber is actually a virgin material that has not been compounded.

"The main reason rubber is scrapped is because of moisture," he said. "We clean it, dry it and bring the product to market."

HB Chemical was formed in 1986 in Akron before moving to Cuyahoga Falls a few years later.

The company has been in Twinsburg since 2013. HB Chemical has about 150,000 square feet in the city today, with about 116,000 square feet of that in warehouse space. It has another 90,000-sq.-ft. warehouse just a couple miles away.

The distribution firm also has warehouses in Georgia and in Greenville, S.C., where the company's technical director, who spearheads tire sales strategies, is based.

"Ravago has been very supportive in this process," Moran said. "They were the best company that could have purchased us. They let us run our business. It really has a been a fantastic melding of companies. All the way up to ownership, they are great to work with."

Since its founding in 1961 by Raf Van Gorp, Ravago provides distribution, resale, compounding and recycling services for plastic and rubber raw materials.

The Luxembourg-based company has about 8,000 employees.