John Weeks is a 35-year plastics veteran whose experience has spanned the raw materials and processing sectors, and now has him heading one of North America's fastest-growing custom injection molders. Precise Technology, headquartered in North Versailles, Pa., just north of Pittsburgh, has doubled in size twice in the past six years via the ambitious acquisitions of Tredegar Molded Products Inc. and, last August, of bankrupt molder and mold maker Courtesy Corp. and its LLS Corp. parent.
He began his career at resin maker Arco Polymers in 1968 and continued in the mid-1970s as a contributor to GE Plastics under the then relatively unknown department head Jack Welch.
Switching from thermoplastics production to plastics processing and assembly, Weeks joined Clinton, Mass.-based injection molder Nypro Inc. in 1977 and was named division president of a start-up company at age 32. Weeks advanced through the ranks at Nypro and subsequently was hired by Tech Group Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz.
In 1990 he seized the opportunity to run his own company as president/CEO of Precise, a troubled firm with annual sales of $18 million, negative cash flow of $1 million per year, and profit margins of less than 10 percent. Today Precise, which specializes in thin-wall plastics packaging, reports sales of $290 million, with gross margins exceeding 23 percent.
Weeks – who received his bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. – credits some of the success to implementation of what he calls “customer-aligned production,” factories dedicated to single, large-volume customers, and to performance-sharing employee incentive programs.