Advanstar disputes Plastics Globe Award
I wish to point out a factual error that appeared in the Dec. 21 issue of Plastics News, in the article ``1998 in review: It was a very weird year.''
In awarding the ``How Many Times Can You Slice That Pie? Award'' you incorrectly include Advanstar Communications Inc., producer of the Plastics Fairs, as one of three firms who have ``boosted to six the number of major regional plastics trade shows scheduled for the U.S. market in 1999.'' The implication clearly being that our company is contributing to a proliferation of trade shows that many vendors in the industry find insupportable.
This is factually incorrect. Advanstar was an originator of regional trade shows serving the plastics industry and has been producing the Plastics Fairs for more than 20 years.
While other firms that we do not control have recently entered the trade show market and have indeed increased the overall number of events, Advanstar has not contributed to this trend. The three Plastics Fairs scheduled for 1999 are consistent with past years and our program is long accepted by the industry. Advanstar has no plans to increase the number of regional shows it produces and has clearly stated its intentions to the industry on this issue.
David J. Caplin
Advanstar Communications
Middleburg Heights, Ohio
Rubbermaid's tumble comes as no suprise
Plastics News' Nov. 16 editorial (``Rubbermaid's slide a lesson for all firms'') lamented the demise of an independent Rubbermaid. As both a consumer and a person involved every day in engineering plastics design, I am not surprised in the least at their downfall.
The simple answer is that they produced an inferior product at a premium price. I can't count the number of their laundry baskets with failed weld lines, their storage boxes with cracked off catches on their covers, etc. After being burned a few times by buying their allegedly premium products, seeing these products fail in ways that indicate indifference to the principles of good plastics part design and good processing practice, I started to buy the less expensive, ``commodity'' products. These performed as well or better than the Rubbermaid branded products, often at half the price.
Now you should be able to see why I am not surprised. If you produce a product that does not have adequate value, you will go out of business, no matter whether you are big or small, rich or poor, have good practices and good people or bad practices and bad people, it almost doesn't matter!
Charles E. McChesney
Kendall Park, N.J.