Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Notable Leaders in Sustainability
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics Caps + Closures: A Global Online Event
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Bioplastics Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • PFAS Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Resin Prices Overview
    • Commodity Thermoplastics
    • High Temperature Thermoplastics
    • Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Thermosets
    • Europe - Virgin
    • Europe - Recycled
    • Europe - Feedstock
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
February 10, 2015 01:00 AM

Plastic Components honored for 'Sustained Excellence'

Bill Bregar
Senior Staff Reporter
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Tom Duffey

    Plastic Components Inc., a custom injection molder in Germantown, Wis., has won Plastics News' first-ever Sustained Excellence Award — designed to honor past Processor of the Year Award winners that have sustained their high level of performance.

    PCI won the 2008 Processor of the Year Award. The company has kept moving forward in the six years since winning the Plastics News' top award.

    Tessy Plastics Corp. was a finalist for the new award.

    The newspaper asked candidates for the Sustained Excellence Award to detail three criteria: Show ongoing financial excellence, discuss one extraordinary new development since winning the Processor of the Year Award and name one key person who has remained at the company since then.

    PCI, owned by President Tom Duffey, performed well in all three areas.

    Annual plastics-related sales were about $10 million in 2008 when PCI became Processor of the Year. Sales have grown steadily since then — with the biggest jump in 2010, a 31 percent gain as PCI rebounded from the Great Recession. (The company has been consistently profitable, even during the recession.)

    Sales for 2014 were $21.5 million, or more than double the sales of 2008.

    What did Plastic Components executives list as the one major development since 2008? Cementing a relationship with Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., which offers a degree in Plastics Engineering Technology. PCI attended a job fair at Ferris State in 2010. The company started a summer internship program that allows students the chance to work in each department at the custom molder.

    That effort paid off. PCI now employs three full-time engineers who are graduates of Ferris State. A fourth Ferris grad is scheduled to join the company in May.

    Attracting young people to manufacturing is critically important as older skilled workers retire. PCI is a good role model in its outreach efforts.

    Instead of naming just one key person, PCI highlighted three. Wendi Jay joined PCI in 1997 as an administrative assistant, and grew to become human resources manager. She established and has maintained the relationship with Ferris State. In recent years, Jay has assumed the full responsibility for the accounting and financial reporting of the business. If that isn't enough work, she also is responsible for PCI's strategic relationship with IQMS.

    Gene Mussel joined PCI as a program launch coordinator in 2006, then advanced through several engineering and operational roles before becoming operations manager in 2012. He is responsible for PCI's main molding plant and a lights-out fully automated factory that opened in 2011. He worked with Ryan Duffey on the new plant.

    Ryan Duffey, Tom's son, also started out as a program launch coordinator, beginning in 2006. He moved up — including handling the launch of the lights-out factory, and became vice president in 2012. That same year, PCI started an Engineering Resource Center to build prototype molds — a project spearheaded by Ryan Duffey.

    He is responsible for all operational performance issues, profit and loss responsibilities, strategic planning and capital investment decisions. The investment adds up, since PCI has spent $7.2 million over the past seven years.

    PCI split off its Engineering Resource Center as a standalone company, effective Dec. 31, and Ryan now is the owner and president of that company, which has been renamed Engineering Resource Center Inc. he remains vice president of PCI.

    Another interesting point: Ryan Duffey and Gene Mussel have been best friends since they were 14 years old.

    Tessy's record

    The finalist, Tessy Plastics, a custom molder based in Elbridge, N.Y., also has had an impressive record since winning Processor of the Year back in 2000. Tessy has become much more diverse. In 2000, Xerox Corp. accounted for half of Tessy's sales — then later than year Xerox exited the ink-jet printer business and sales plummeted. But Tessy officials already had been planning a diversification move, picking up work from Gillette Corp. and its Duracell unit.

    In other moves, Tessy has made a major expansion into medical molding, adding factory space and clean rooms.

    Tessy has steadily invested — making the plastics processor one of the bright spots in its upstate New York home region. For example, the company bought a vacant Syroco resin furniture factory, and acquired a former Honeywell building, converting it to a medical molding showpiece.

    The moves have paid off in growth. Tessy Plastics generated sales of about $91 million when it won the Processor of the Year Award, and the company had about 156,000 square feet of manufacturing, office and warehousing space. Today? Sales are more than $250 million with 928,000 square feet of space.

    Sales growth has averaged nearly 9 percent a year.

    “We're no longer a custom injection molder. We're an engineering company that also happens to mold,” said Joe Raffa, vice president and general manager.

    The company named founder Henry Beck as its one key person. Beck has left an “indelible fingerprint” on the operation, Raffa said, adding: “He is the fabric of what makes Tessy Plastics a great place to work.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Tennessee-based insulation maker adding equipment, jobs
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Ohio PET jar maker closes, auctioning off equipment
    2
    An 8,000-ton dream for Milacron, 20/20 Custom Molded Plastics
    3
    Nova declares force majeure for PE resin at second Ontario site
    4
    Preventing pellet pollution focus of expanded Operation Clean Sweep, congressional push
    5
    PS resin prices continue their climb
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Find more newsletters at plasticsnews.com/newsletters.

    You can unsubscribe at any time through links in these emails. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Notable Leaders in Sustainability
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Videos
      • Podcasts
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics Caps + Closures: A Global Online Event
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Bioplastics Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • PFAS Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Resin Prices Overview
      • Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temperature Thermoplastics
      • Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Recycled Plastics
      • Thermosets
      • Europe - Virgin
      • Europe - Recycled
      • Europe - Feedstock
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified