The Akron Beacon Journal has the story on its Ohio.com Web site.
According to the report, Tikes had offers from Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Mexico to relocate. But in the end the company decided to accept a package of loans, grants and incentives from the state of Ohio and the city of Hudson worth $4.3 million.
"We're returning and adding jobs," Tom Richmond, Little Tikes Worldwide general manager, told the newspaper.
The company is bringing its consumer services division back to Hudson from California, adding some marketing positions, and it has hired 30 workers to handle production that Tikes is moving to Ohio from China.
In recent years Tikes has slipped to the No. 9 spot in Plastics News' annual ranking of North American rotomolders, but it's still a big name in the sector. In fact, an editorial in our Aug. 24 ranking issue this year focused on Tikes' pending decision. Check it out for a classic cartoon (featuring the iconic Tikes Cozy Coupe toys) by reader favorite Rich Williams.
]]>This story from the Concord, N.H., Monitor updates a Plastics Blog post from September, back when Binnie said he was considering entering the GOP primary.
The Monitor story asks Binnie his opinion about a variety of isues (gay marriage, abortion, etc.), but the headline is "Binnie: Senate needs a businessman," and he stresses that part of his resume.
"We need jobs, and we need deficits to stop," Binnie said. "Reckless spending in Washington will destroy us. ... My experience building business, creating jobs, dealing with business challenges all over the world. those are the skills we need to meet the challenges we face today."
A spokesman for the Democrats in New Hampshire calls Binnie "a well-funded opponent willing to sink personal money into a Senate run."
]]>John Gates Jr., the new chairman of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, told his board on Tuesday that reduced tourism and convention business has "put us in a fairly significant and unprecedented financial hole. ... It's not an insurmountable hole, but we can't climb our way out of it and conduct business as usual."
According to this story in Crain's Chicago Business, when the current fiscal year ends June 30, McPier predicts the shortfall in tourism-based revenue will be $33.9 million from the previous year, following an $18.8-million shortfall in fiscal 2009.
The agency relies on the tourism-related tax revenue to pay back the bonds that it uses to finance expansion projects, like the new West hall at McCormick. To meet its current obligation, Gates says the agency will tap state sales tax revenue, which it has not had to do until now.
"The state will pay that shortfall for the foreseeable future until we can restructure these bonds and get our financial house back in order," Gates said.
Just consider these details as important background that's sure to play a role in the behind-the-scenes discussions on NPE between Chicago and the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.
]]>It includes a visit to the Siemens wind turbine plant in Iowa (check out the link for video from the Discovery Channel) in which they show a little of the fiberglass turbine production.
The bike also includes LED lighting (which has lots of plastics, including a polycarbonate component).
This may be a "green" motorcycle, but it's not a wimpy scooter. They elected to use a high-voltage motor, despite the increased size and power requirements, so the bike could achieve speeds of 100 mph or more.
But does it sound like a real motorcycle? We'll see.
(And thanks to Rhoda Miel, Plastics News' staff reporter in Detroit, for suggesting this post).
]]>Mary Kay Marquisos, a spokeswoman for McCormick Place, told ABC 7 in Chicago: "If you go to a routine vending machine it cost[s] you $1 to $2 to vend a soda bottle and then another $1.50 for staff to deliver to the booth. This price includes receiving, warehouse, staff and delivery. This charge is not dissimilar to what you would pay at a hotel or another convention center."
I thought about that comparison myself, back when complaints about McCormick first came to light after this year's show. Compare the cost of doing business at NPE to, say, the cost of ordering room service at a hotel in New York.
But a lot of NPE exhibitors aren't buying that explanation.
Today I traded emails with a longtime NPE exhibitor who says he knows no exhibitors who are in favor of staying in Chicago. (He asked, "Maybe I'm talking to the wrong people?" Maybe I am too, because I'm hearing the same things.)
He wants to be anonymous, so I won't include any details that will disclose his company, but he agreed to let me share his story:
I could go on and on, with the ridiculous stories of this past show's labor practices. The setting of some of my display items in the aisle, and the union telling me, "You only get one spot, if you want it moved (to inside my booth), you need to pay extra."The Millrights union who stopped us from attaching a sprue picker to our machine. "You need 2 millwrights for that ... oh, and we need the riggers union to lift it up ... oh, and when you start running your machine, and it falls off because we didn't tighten the bolts, well you need to put in a work order for more riggers and millrights. And did you forget the electricians union to plug it into your machine?"
The union official who asked me what I thought I was doing, by trying to hang my own Velcro-backed signs to my display materials: "There's a decorators union for that, ya know."
And heaven forbid your crate which needs opening has been secured by both screw AND nails. The Millwrights we do the unscrewing, but the Carpenter's union handles the prying of nails.
We've heard such complaints before, typically after every NPE show. Is this reality, or are the stories exaggerated?
Hanrahan, whose letter was on the record, made a point of specifically saying that he thinks the traditional complaints about unions at McCormick Place are urban myths.
"I have not witnessed any of the rumored problems in the past regarding uncooperative workers, bribes or payoffs. I have found most of the tradespeople to be courteous and professional and, for the most part, qualified for the job," he wrote.
His problem focused on the cost of exhibiting. The now-famous "Pepsi incident" was just one example.
It's clear that many companies feel they'd get a better deal in Orlando.
For the past couple of days, I've been asking exhibitors this question: Traditionally, Orlando would not be a serious candidate even for a regional plastics show. Can exhibitors be serious about holding an international show in Florida?
One gave me this answer: "Surely, fewer people will come, but they will be better quality, and the return on investment will be better for exhibitors."
I'm still skeptical that Chicago can offer concessions that will make a difference.
If McCormick gives the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. a discount for NPE, won't all the other big shows (Pack Expo International, IMTS, the International Home + Housewares Show) demand the same deal?
These are the big shows that fill the hotel rooms with thousands of out-of-town visitors. If threatening to pull out of Chicago works for SPI, I expect they'll all do the same.
Still, Chicago just spent millions to build the new West Hall at McCormick Place. They can't just use it for local car and boat shows.
I still think Chicago will manage to keep NPE for 2012 and 2015. I personally like Chicago, and I think it's the best location in North America for an international plastics trade show.
But more than a few exhibitors believe they need to move the next couple of shows to Orlando -- and hope that Chicago eventually comes to its senses and reduces its costs, so they can go back to McCormick in 2018.
]]>Freelance columnist and blogger Dennis Byrne tackles the topic in a Nov. 3 column: "Chicago overwhelmed with spineless saps."
"Chicago is wimp city. A city full of obsequious voters, businesses and civic groups that have been repeatedly swindled, scammed and hosed by local politicians. Yet, with each betrayal, the serfs continue to grovel before such liege lords as Mayor Richard M. Daley and House Speaker Michael Madigan and beg for more of the same. Nothing is egregious enough to inspire insurrection by the city and state's vassals," he writes.
On the subject of NPE, Byrne has done his homework:
Daley now is fighting to keep a huge national plastics industry convention from fleeing Chicago, its 40-year home. The show brought in $95.3 million last June, but it appears the exhibitors are fed up with the extravagant costs they must pay to riggers, tradesmen and other organized workers at McCormick Place. As the trade publication Plastics News reported, Daley met Wednesday in his office with convention officials to plead with them to stay.The problem? As trade show exhibitor Tim Hanrahan explained in the publication, it cost $345 to get four cases of Pepsi to his booth. "The invoice breaks down to $254 for the four cases of Pepsi, a 21 percent service charge, and a 10.25 percent Illinois state sales tax, a 3 percent Chicago soft drink tax, a tax on the service charge and a food and beverage tax. Government taxes totaled $38.06, which is more than the legitimate retail price of the soft drinks," he said. "I could go on. A $640 TV stand rental is another good example," he said. "But you get the point."
Hanrahan gets the point, but do we? For the sake of a special interest -- organized labor in this case -- the body politic seems willing to drive away business that brings dollars into town. To finance the greed and corruption endemic here, we tolerate punishing taxes on the very businesses we plead with to stay.
As I've said before -- plastics industry, you've got Chicago's attention. Will it make a difference? Will the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. get a better deal from McCormick Place in 2012 and 2015 -- or will it decide to give Orlando, Fla., a try instead?
Stay tuned.
]]>The problem is TMI -- too much information. Specifically, too much personal information.
Michael Schmidt, in the the New York office of Philadelphia's Cozen O'Conner, told the Journal that a manager is bound to learn things about an employee that he or she will wish the boss didn't know.
"Friending" goes both ways, the story notes. According to a recent survey by staffing service firm Office Team, 48 percent of executives are uncomfortable being friended by those they manage. So employees may also want to hold off on friending their bosses.
Interesting points. Still, don't you think that in most offices, bosses and employees already know personal information about one another, even without sharing it online through social media applications?
]]>The first assembly plant is in Everett, Wash., but Boeing says it needs a second line so it can eventually deliver as many as 10 of the wide-body jets per month, according to this story from The Seattle Times.
Although production of the 787 has been delayed several times, airline companies are eager to buy the Dreamliners because the revolutionary fuel-saving design.
Boeing already has a plant in Charleston where it employs 900 fabricating single-piece rear-fuselage barrels out of composites. The company also has an adjacent joint venture plant that employs 1,600 assembling the central fuselage, according to the story.
With the new assembly line, the company expects to add 3,800 new jobs in South Carolina.
That sort of investment will quickly make South Carolina a major force in high-tech composite plastic design and manufacturing.
]]>ACC put out a news release on the partnership, and I have to admit I'm a little out of my element writing about plastics' impact on the fashion industry.
The announcement starts with the headline: "Plastic Is the New Black!" and notes that Cuoco will host the Oct. 29 Gen Art "Fresh Faces in Fashion" Los Angeles show.
"Plastics and couture might not seem like an obvious fit, but the fact is that plastics have played a very large role in fashion for decades," said Steve Russell, vice president of ACC's Plastics Division, in the release.
"Without plastic, we wouldn't have faux fur, and skinny jeans wouldn't have their stretch. Plastics also provide women with comfortable, smooth support under their favorite looks. We're thrilled to partner with Gen Art to highlight how plastics inspire designers' imaginations and allow artists to create pieces that are cutting-edge, on trend, chic, affordable, and even eco-friendly."
At the show, Cuoco will announce a fashion design competition that will challenge designers to create "two dynamic womenswear" looks made from fabrics that include plastic-based fibers. The winner will receive a $10,000 prize and a runway show at Gen Art's Fresh Faces event at Winter 2010 New York Fashion Week.
Will this type of event help improve the image of plastics, especially among the young millennial generation? Stay tuned.
As a footnote, I discovered a new ACC Web site through this story, PlasticsMakeItPossible.com. ACC uses that "brand" throughout the announcement, apparently assuming that its target audience still remembers the old American Plastics Council TV ads and radio spots that touted the benefits of plastics.
]]>Last week city officials in Simi Valley, Calif., shut down a haunted house that Cindy Fike and her family had been operating for the past eight years.
Even though the attraction was open to the public free of charge, and it was on Fike's property, the city said it was illegal because it was operating without an amusement permit.
The plastics angle here -- and what makes this haunted house so cool that it attracts about a thousand visitors every year -- is the connection to Plastic Depot, a Burbank, Calif., supply store.
Fike's son, Kyle Killips, runs Plastic Depot, which supplies acrylic and other products to the film and TV industry. As a result, he has access to some realistic-looking scary props that go far beyond the normal costume-store stuff. (Check the blog links for photos)
After the city shut down the attraction, Killips and his friends spent a couple of days tearing it down. Is there a Halloween equivalent of the Grinch?
But this story has a happy ending for all the little ghosts and goblins in Simi Valley. After getting some heat from the public, the city has backtracked on its decision to shut down the haunted house. So Killips is re-assembling the project, and he hopes to have it up and running by Oct. 30.
Killips told the LA Times that he has spent $15,000 on his collection of mummies, alien monsters, mad scientists and other scary stuff. Remember, he doesn't charge admission -- this is just an expensive treat he does for his neighborhood.
"It all comes out of my pocket," he said. "But the kids in the neighborhood get a blast out of it. When you hear them having so much fun, it's hard not to be in a good mood."
]]>I remember interviewing the some leaders of the now-defunct National Polystyrene Recycling Corp. back in 1992. One told me that NPRC had spent $60 million between 1988 and 1992 to set up and promote its PS recycling infrastructure, and yet it had only managed to recycle about 35 million pounds of material.
Not exactly a great return on investment.
So I'm not surprised to see this story from the Oakland Tribune today, reporting that GB Industrial Materials Corp., the only company in the Fremont-Union City area to collect plastic foam for recycling, will no longer allow people to make drop-offs at its Union City plant.
"People leave all the garbage bags in our parking lot and on weekends. Many times we come in in the morning and are like, 'What is that?,'" owner Christina Liu told the newspaper. "We are short-handed. This is very labor-intensive work."
GBIM Corp. specializes in importing and exporting thermoplastics, including both virgin and recycled material.
The company wasn't alone -- the story points out that other companies that recycle PS foam are in Oakland, Redwood City and Stockton. Plastics News has written stories about successful PS recycling programs, as has our sister newspaper Waste & Recycling News. (Here are a few).
But with PS bans spreading across California (24 California towns and two counties have banned PS takeout packaging), the news that a drop-off program in one community is scaling back is bad news for the foodservice packaging sector.
]]>As I noted yesterday, it became obvious in the middle of the week that the folks at Chicago's McCormick Place discovered our Web poll, and they called out the troops to get out the vote.
As of today, nearly 2,000 people have voted, and Chicago is winning in a landslide.
Yesterday I informally credited Kathy Knusta, project coordinator with the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (which owns McCormick Place) with the get-out-the-vote effort.
But let's spread the credit around a little. Today I heard from Meghan Risch, director of public relations for the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau, who shined some more light on the effort.
"As you can see from your latest poll, Chicago is very passionate about its meetings and convention industry," she wrote.
"It's social media at its best. On Wednesday, I posted a 'discussion' on LinkedIn for the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau's Members Only group -- more than 600 of our 1,100 members are part of this group. That, coupled with the CCTB staff and McCormick Place staff, definitely contributed to a spike in votes -- we're committed to keeping Plastics in Chicago."
Isn't it interesting how she used social media to generate such a quick and overwhelming response to a timely question? There's a lesson there for all the B2B marketing pros in The Plastics Blog's audience.
The poll results don't bother me. The survey is unscientific, so readers should always take it with a grain of salt. It's interesting to see how people feel, and to get a rough idea of what issues readers consider important.
In this case, many of our readers are very interested in the debate -- as well as the hundreds of non-plastics industry people who voted on PlasticsNews.com this week.
(And if you don't agree with the vote, the polls are still open).
Look at it this way -- Chicago's convention officials are putting on a full-court press to keep NPE -- just like Orlando's did last week.
By the way, I took the opportunity to ask Risch about Chicago's revised proposal that forestalled the vote on where to hold the 2012 and 2015 shows, but she didn't offer any details.
"Chicago is glad to have been part of the process and we look forward to continued discussions with SPI," Risch said.
]]>The poll on our home page asks readers, "Would you prefer to attend NPE2012 in Chicago or Orlando, Fla.?"
It's a hot topic, and voting was pretty heavy on Monday and Tuesday.
Today, though, it went through the roof.
As of 5:45 p.m. ET, we've had more than 1,200 people vote in the poll. That figure far exceeds the previous record for one of our PN weekly polls. (The previous top spot: Oct. 1, 2004, we asked readers if the presidential election was held today, who would they elect. George W. Bush won with 60.4 percent of the votes).
On the NPE poll, Orlando was winning until today, and suddenly Chicago has picked up a couple of hundred votes -- with almost none for Orlando.
I can't tell if they're voting in alphabetical order, but it's obvious that the folks in McCormick Place discovered the poll.
Kathy Knusta, project coordinator with the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (which owns McCormick Place) even posted a comment:
"Chicago is the best town! I have been a Chicagoan my whole life and when I travel I really realize how much I love my hometown! From the great people, the great food and the great events and sightseeing there is to do! Just recently, a friend came into town and she asked what could I do for the weekend? I didn´t even know where to begin because there is so much for us to offer! I don´t know one person I met that said they didn´t like Chicago after they left! Come visit and you´ll see!"
Thanks Kathy, and congratulations on the get-out-the-vote effort.
I've got some personal experience with Chicago elections -- I was an exit poll taker for WBBM TV in 1983, when Harold Washington won his first Democratic primary for the mayor's job, beating Jane Byrne and Richard M. Daley. So I can appreciate the effort being taken by the Chicago voters today.
It's all in fun, after all. And it doesn't hurt to show the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. members that Chicago wants to keep NPE.
]]>The document touches on plastics in several places -- in both positive and negative lights.
For P&G, much of the emphasis is on creating and marketing products that have a reduced environmental impact. According to the company, it has achieved $13.1 billion in sales since 2007 in "products with a significantly reduced environmental impact." One that gets a lot of ink in the report is Ariel Excel Gel, a highly concentrated, low-temperature laundry detergent introduced in Western Europe. Because it is created for consumers to wash clothes in cold water, much of the sustainable benefit comes through energy savings -- assuming that consumers really do use the detergent in cold water.
Because the product is concentrated, there's a plastics angle. It uses 14-45 percent less packaging:
The next-generation formula uses only ingredients that add value to the cleaning performance, adding no thickeners, solvents, or stabilizers. Thanks to a breakthrough formulation that forms a gel naturally, the product's easy-squeeze consistency is achieved without the need for any structuring agents. This makes it possible to handle the same number of loads in a highly concentrated formula, leading to a dramatic reduction in packaging.
Ariel also uses plastics to reduce transport packaging by 80 percent:
One example of our systemic approach involves an advance by P&G teams in Turkey. By replacing cardboard shipping boxes on Ariel with seal-tight plastic bags, they found a way to use significantly less material while delivering a superior product to market. Previously, shipping Ariel involved packing eight bags of Ariel granule detergent into a corrugated box. The team designed a new process that packed Ariel in large, sealtight polyethylene bags. Entirely recyclable, these bags require 80% less packaging material than boxes, and can be opened without tools. They also take up 20% less space during transport and storage and help speed up the packaging line.For our retail customers, the new outer covering provides still more value. It allows for easier stock management, with the transparent film showing the product inside for
faster recognition of brands and sizes. Because the packaging can be opened without tools, it is easier to handle. And it maximizes shelf space, helping reduce out-of-stock situations.The success of this packaging advance has inspired its expansion beyond Turkey. The new process is currently being reapplied across multiple regions, with three more plants scheduled to be up and running by early next year.
The report also mentions that P&G is replacing plastic with recycled-content corrugate in its in-store displays.
For more details, here's a link directly to P&G's 26-page sustainability overview (PDF warning). The company notes that the full report is coming soon.
]]>Mirkarimi, the author of the city's plastic bag ban, introduced legislation yesterday that would require stores to offer a 10-cent rebate to people who bring their own bags.
"I believe we now need to tackle paper bags," Mirkarimi told the San Francisco Chronicle. "So when the question is asked, paper or plastic, the answer is neither."
His proposed ordinance would fine large retailers up to $500 if they failed to provide the rebate.
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