Material distributor and custom fabricator Ridout Plastics Co. Inc., doing business as ePlastics, was recognized April 19 for being in business for more than a century.
The U-T San Diego newspaper included ePlastics in coverage about “makers of San Diego history” that honored at an April 26 tribute dinner.
Starting in 1914 as the Rench Co., the firm sold display numbers and letters made from cellulose polymers along with white plastic numbers that grocery stores would use to prioritize customers in waiting lines.
The Ridout family purchased and renamed the company in the 1950s, and the Rabin family acquired the business in 1967 retaining the familiar Ridout identity.
Elliott Rabin, president and CEO since 1990, introduced the ePlastics moniker, standing for Everything Plastics, in 2015 and underscores how its website generates business well outside its geographic base. The firm's mantra: “What Others Can't, We Can!”
Among its sheet, rod, tube and shape product lines, ePlastics distributes and can custom-fabricate a range of specialized engineering plastics; Plexiglas, Acrylite, Lucite, Polycast, Optix and Perspex acrylic sheet; and Lexan, Hygard and Makrolon polycarbonate.
The business employs 47 and occupies 40,000 square feet of space, which includes a 3,500 square feet showroom to stoke the imaginations of hobbyists, do-it-yourself homeowners and small business owners.
The production center is equipped with computer-numerical-control sawing, drilling, laser cutting and routing machines.