Fulflex stays in niche, sees 2020 as year of growth

BRATTLEBORO, Vt.—Fulflex Inc. does not want to be all things to all people.

The custom rubber mixer wants to be viewed as a key supplier and partner with its clients, providing value-added service, according to Pat Curtin, director of product marketing and technology.

For a commodity supplier, think the exact opposite.

"We're mainly a niche business. We're less sensitive to automotive as a category, which tends to be the dominate consumer of rubber in the U.S. We have some automotive business, but most of our business is not in that sector," Curtin said.

"We're more in the niche, focusing on specific strengths and trying to help convert those into meaningful unique advantages for our customers. Not necessarily doing truckloads of the same thing over and over again. Where there is a high-service component, high-technology component, or severe requirements, that's more like where we would play in."

Curtin added that Fulflex avoids commodity work where possible, but that's not always an option. "Certainly, we would be more interested in working with customers in longer-term programs and trying to develop the ability to differentiate both for our customers and ourselves," he said.

Last year treated Fulflex well. And Curtin expects more of the same in 2020.

The company traces its origins to elastics, which still is a major portion of its business along with the custom mixing and calendering services.

"We're busy and we're seeing recovery continue. We had a good year last year and that looks like it's going to continue to grow in this calendar year," he said. "We definitely are seeing growth."

Fulflex has seen some positive impact from reshoring initiatives, because the supply chain is being strained out of China and sees the need to diversify.

"So people may be a little more open to U.S. sourcing, at least for critical applications where they want a value add or some differentiator" Curtin said.

But any business that sees opportunities also faces challenges.

"We're always going to face the challenge of off-shore competition. Whether it's China today or Vietnam tomorrow. So you are always going to have a segment of our business that's under threat. Which is why it's really important to really develop products that are unique and not easy to knock off and have a higher degree of complexity," he said.

Fulflex seeks to work with its customers for the long term, not just as a one-time supplier. Part of that approach requires the company to have the technical expertise that customers can rely on.

"A lot of our new business comes from existing customers, because if you look after your customers, they tend to … rely on you when they need something, and you are more likely to get new business opportunities if you are looking after the customers you already have," Curtin said.

"We prefer to work with our customers as a partner, understand their business, figure out how we can grow the business mutually to our benefit."

Part of the company's approach involves an investment of about $200,000 to improve its processes to provide more flexibility and improve productivity and consistency of the product, Curtin said. As a private firm, he declined to provide more details about that work.

Another recent customer-centric investment involved improvements to the company's website, creating an approach that allows customers easier access to information about the company's compounding and calendering operations.

That information, previously only contained within the company's main website, now is broken out onto its on microsite at rubbermix.calender.fulflex.com.

Fulflex is owned by Garware Bestretch Ltd. of Pune, India, which acquired the mixer from the Moore Co. in 2018.