In today’s uncertain times, our industry must continually change and adapt in order to survive

ARP Materials follows this maxim and has not only survived, but thrived.

“As Darwin said, it’s not the strongest, but the most adaptable that survive. We are not the biggest, but we are the most adaptive,” said Nick Fasolino, president of ARP.

For 27 years, ARP Materials Inc. (formerly Alternative Rubber and Plastics) has provided high quality, reliable and innovative resources from around the globe. They are dedicated to providing customers with cost-competitive alternatives that allow them to compete on a global level.

“We believe if we help our customers grow their business, it will help us grow ours,” Fasolino said.

ARP knows that many factors influence a customer’s decision on where to purchase raw materials, and they are committed to understanding what drives those decisions. As an ISO 9001:2015 certified distributor of raw materials to the rubber and plastics industry, ARP is focused on providing quality and consistency, both from itself and from its vendors.

“The ISO certification, over the years, has absolutely made us a better company,” Fasolino said. “We monitor our performance on so many different levels and we make fewer errors because of it. It’s a certifi-cation I would recommend all businesses to achieve.”

Obstacles to Opportunity

ARP Materials has been a family-run business since Jerry Fasolino Sr. founded it in 1993. Now, with second generation leadership and a growing, diversified team of industry professionals, ARP continues to expand its portfolio to meet the market’s ever-changing needs.

In 2008, ARP was hit with two major challenges. Founder Jerry Sr. had to step down due to serious health issues. Then ARP lost a key vendor, resulting in an 80% reduction in sales. This financial crisis forced Jerry Jr. and his brothers, Nick and Mark, to reevaluate where their company fit in the industry. They needed to weather the massive reduction in sales and ensure it would not happen again.

With the support of long-term vendors such as Parker LORD, the brothers were able to recover and remain a key player in the rubber industry.

Parker LORD, which like ARP has continually evolved, develops and manufactures high-performance adhesive products. They are the leaders in rubber-to-substrate adhesives and elastomer bonding. Parker LORD also supplies Cold-Bond Adhesives for room temperature rubber bonding commonly used for belt repair, belt splicing and rubber linings.

Over the next several years, the Fasolino brothers, along with head salesman Jeff Wiedeman, focused on diversifying their portfolio and finding gaps in the market they could fill. When a major U.S. producer of CPE exited the market, they knew this was the opportunity they had been looking for.

To move forward, they needed a partner. Fortunately, Keli Chemical, one of the world’s largest producers of CPE, was looking for a U.S. channel partner. Jerry Jr. traveled to China and convinced Keli executives that no one would work harder or be more committed to growing their product line in the U.S.

Keli Chemical manufactures all grades of rubber CPE for the hose and wire & cable industries, along with plastic CPE grades to act as impact modifiers for the siding industry and other plastic substrates. Keli is the only CPE supplier with two different manufacturing locations. Both are located in government-approved industrial parks in China with total capacity of 170,000MT/year.

The partnership with Keli Chemical paved the way for ARP to gain industry expertise and entry into large markets such as hose, wire & cable and custom mixing. With the success of the CPE product line, ARP was able to quickly expand from 3 vendors in the U.S. to 20 vendors in 8 countries.

In 2018, ARP was hit with another devastating blow. At the young age of 43, Jerry Jr. lost a hard-fought battle with cancer. This left Nick with the responsibility of continuing the business his father started and implementing the vision Jerry Jr. had imagined.

In the months after Jerry Jr.’s passing, ARP was handed another obstacle – an unexpected 25% tariff increase on products sourced from China. Fortunately, at the same time, they began a partnership with Versalis Americas to promote its EPDM products in the U.S. market. This allowed ARP to fill the gap and again adapt to a changing environment.

Versalis Americas is ARP’s primary supplier of EPDM (copolymers and terpolymers), BR and TPR.

Despite these challenges, ARP has thrived. For the past decade, ARP has grown an impressive 15-20% per year. They now operate 11 full-service warehouses strategically located throughout the U.S., which translates to JIT deliveries. Fasolino credits the success to his family’s commitment to building trust and understanding their customers’ needs.

“We’re out there, still hustling, continuing to grow just by doing the right thing,” Fasolino said. “Our family is big on karma. We believe what you put in is what you get back.”

Today and Tomorrow

Moving forward, ARP will continue its focus on specialized customer service and advanced technology to meet changes in demand.

“We’ve built up our ERP and CRM systems to allow us to be flexible in order to accommodate our customers’ requirements,” said Fasolino. “We listen to how their systems work, then incorporate that into ours.”

The journey from vendor to customer dock can take up to 16 weeks, but ARP’s systems are set up to monitor the process from start to finish. The advanced ERP system forecasts trends and usage so material is or-dered at the right time and delivered on time.

ARP is focused on developing a strategic portfolio of suppliers and products to accommodate the many industries it now serves. To distinguish itself from the competition, ARP focuses on vendors that offer a mix of commodity and specialty products. ARP does not aim to be a jack-of-all-trades, but in-stead offers a complementary set of products for the markets it serves.

On the polymer side of the industry, ARP partners with Nitriflex for their NBR, providing standard, clean, carboxylated Nitrile/PVC and powder grades. For high-quality standard grades of SBR, Pampa Energia has been the chosen supplier for several years. Jilin, the company that most recently partnered with ARP, offers a competitive source of CSM to the US.

In response to frequent customer requests, ARP has started offering selectively sourced complementary products. These include physical and chemical foaming agents from Dongjin; acrylic and MBS impact modifiers and process aids from Donglin; highly effective flame retardant and smoke suppressant additives from R.J. Marshall; and carbon black from Phillips Carbon Black.

Heading into 2021, ARP fully supports going green for a more sustainable future. The rubber industry has long been thought to only produce products that will end up in a landfill, but that is no longer true. ARP Materials has welcomed partnerships with vendors who reclaim or recover end-of-life products in the rubber or plastics industry.

Fishfa is one of the largest manufacturers of Butyl reclaim in the world. ARP offers their butyl, whole tire and EPDM reclaim. Delta-Energy produces recovered carbon black, which can be substituted for virgin carbon black in certain formulations.

ARP Materials is constantly looking for the next generation of leading raw materials to help its customers separate them-selves from the competition. ARP will continue its healthy growth by keeping a finger on the industry’s pulse and seeking innovations. They understand that change is the only constant in this industry, so while adhering to the core values on which the company was founded, they will continue to adapt and evolve.