GRT Rubber conveying a sense of growth

PARAGOULD, Ark.—Throughout its 140-year history, GRT Rubber Technologies has prided itself on diverse product offerings to a broad range of industries, finding unique ways to add value for customers who purchase the company's conveyor belts and sheet rubber products.

But while the company has been profitable since its inception in 1880, the 100 employees of GRT have not always seen their own creativity and innovative ideas valued. This important growth dynamic returned to the company following its December 2014 carve-out from EnPro Industries, a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, and subsequent partnership with Main Street Capital, a publicly traded business development corporation.

According to GRT, EnPro did not see GRT as a part of its core businesses, and did not prioritize GRT's growth—making the manufacturer, for a time, under-capitalized with limited strategic oversight.

"During our time with EnPro, their strategy evolved and GRT became less of a 'fit' with EnPro's vision," said David Brown, CEO of GRT Rubber Technologies. "Even though we were profitable, as a non-strategic partner it became difficult to get EnPro to invest in our growth, both from a capital equipment and a human talent perspective. This was recognized by EnPro as well as by the GRT Team, so the decision was made to divest GRT from EnPro and begin looking for a new partner that valued the GRT business model."

And the rest, they say, is history, as production over the past half-decade at GRT's lone 150,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility in Arkansas has skyrocketed and markets served have broadened.

"Once we partnered with Main Street, the dynamic changed completely," Brown said. "Obviously having a 'willing' provider of capital made a tremendous difference in opening up possibilities. We immediately invested in some capital equipment that allowed us to expand our product offerings and add services that we didn't previously have."

Brown said GRT upgraded several of its manufacturing processes—which include calendering, rotocuring, flat pressing, autoclaving and slitting—to improve efficiency and quality, and was able to add a territory-based sales team.

"Main Street also differentiated themselves during the selection process in that they put emphasis on retaining the entire GRT Team and wanted to make sure the transition was as 'seamless' as possible," Brown said.

With more than 180 companies in their portfolio, Main Street has been able to offer perspective and business acumen in developing GRT's now-proven business model.

GRT has flourished in its production of lightweight belts, which has allowed the company to enter the e-commerce and airport baggage handling sectors, working with clients like Amazon and FedEx. GRT's lightweight belts also can be found within the pulp and paper and food packaging industries.

Brown said its newly developed cleated belts have opened the door to the agricultural sector, an area in which GRT expects its market share to grow, and expanded its involvement in mining and construction.

Along with its cleated belts, the company offers a full line of heavyweight belting (used in mining, agriculture, steel, quarrying and power generation industries) and a complete line of industrial sheet rubber offerings in bulk and discreet part form. GRT also offers vibration damping and load bearing pads, used on virtually every bridge, commercial building and parking garage that is constructed. Viblon is the company's unique cotton duck load bearing line, which boasts extremely high compressive capabilities, Brown noted.

GRT even produces rubber gypsum forming belts, a smaller portion of the company's business in a niche market but no less important. Other niche market product examples include rubber overhead door materials and molded diaphragm products.

"We strive to be responsive to our customers and their needs," Brown said. "If you call us, a live person will answer the phone, not a recording. We pride ourselves on our quick turnaround capabilities and have designed our business so we can offer industry leading manufacturing lead times. We also have designed our business so we can manufacture our products to the exact length and width required. "Our ability to manufacture quickly to the exact need of the customer has proven to be a nice advantage in our markets."

Industry ins and outs
The main components of a belt include fabric and rubber. The textile material generally is made from polyester or nylon, or a blend of each. While the textile adds the strength to any given conveyor belt, the rubber compound—including SBR, nitrile, neoprene, EPDM, butyl, NR, FKM, and some blends—is used to bind the fabric and protect it, Brown said.

Rubber compounds are made from various elastomers and normally are compounded to meet the performance needs of a given application—whether that might be hauling aggregate out of a mine or transporting grain on a farm.

"We primarily use SBR for aggregate and mining because it typically has better abrasion resistance needed for carrying rocks, ores and other sharp materials," Brown said. "Belt used in the grain industry usually requires some level of oil resistance, so we normally supply nitrile-based compounds, which have excellent oil resistance."

As stated, GRT manufactures the belt and sheet rubber using calenders, rotocures, flat presses, autoclaves and slitters. The rotocure process, in particular, allows GRT to cater to tight thresholds, using precise gauges and width tolerances.

The rubber compound and fabric design is handled by a technical team at GRT, and the company sources its raw materials from a variety of vendors in North America, Asia and Europe.

"Our ability to manufacture both conveyor belt and sheet rubber have allowed us to produce custom products in both sheet and belt," Brown said. "We are going to continue to invest in our people and our processes. In the last 60 days, we have added three additional sales execs into territory or market-focused roles, and are actively recruiting for three more additional sales execs. We feel our business model and diversity in our markets allows us to weather most downturns."

Speaking of downturns

A deeper look into market fluctuations within any industry and their impacts on businesses like GRT is not possible without considering the chaos wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

"The pandemic is having a large impact on how we operate," Brown said. "We have really scaled back on in-person meetings. Almost all of the group internal meetings we have are virtual Skype/Zoom-type meetings, including the meetings when all the participants are in the building."

As an essential business, GRT has implemented face mask protocols and strict 6-foot social distancing measures. The business continues to conduct temperature checks of everyone who enters the building.

"I am really proud of our team and the way we are dealing with the pandemic," Brown said. "When we realized it was going to have an immediate impact on orders during March and April, we did implement some cost-saving measures that impacted everyone on the team financially. Fortunately, we were able to keep almost everyone working and the small group that did get furloughed volunteered for it."

Brown noted that in many cases it was GRT employees with many years of service who volunteered to keep the newer team members from being impacted.

"I am extremely proud of our team and how we rallied to overcome the pandemic and continued to safely produce product," he said.

Brown said all the industries served by GRT have been impacted by COVID-19, due to so many downstream customer shutdowns. GRT has seen some recovery in its core markets of aggregates, construction, mining and general industrial, but not back to pre-pandemic levels.

The sheet rubber market has been "a little more reliable" during the pandemic relative to the belting segment, Brown said.

GRT also built its stock inventory in belting, which the company predicted would be needed when customers rebounded.

"Some of our markets such as the lightweight parcel and package handling paused in the early stages of the pandemic, but they are showing signs of a full recovery as time passes," Brown said. "We are fortunate that we can respond quickly to volume changes in either direction.

"All of our markets experience normal cyclical changes upward and downward. Almost all the markets we participate in are very mature and established, and I feel we have a proven model that has been effective and allowed us to grow and prosper."