Deal making CEO likes building things

Brian Anderson Sr. can be viewed as a study in contrasts.

In junior college in California, he played the punishing position of middle linebacker albeit at 192 pounds. (“I couldn't keep the weight on.”)

After school, he entered big business. He was was a CPA working for major accounting firms PriceWaterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand before buying his first company (Myers Electric) at age 28.

Today, he's a confused deal junkie who also believes strongly in organic growth.

Call him what you like, the self-described Type A owner of Molded Devices Inc. has immersed himself in the plastics industry since buying into the sector with a small acquisition in 1998.

So, why plastics?

“I knew at a young age I wanted to do my own thing,” said the 58-year-old Anderson. “I love manufacturing. I like things. It's concrete and from a selfish business standpoint, you're able to leverage people from a lower wage. You can't really do that in the service sector. I've found manufacturing easier to scale. When I hear noise out of the backroom, I like it.”

Anderson and his wife own Molded Devices. The company is headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., but he operates out of its Riverside, Calif., office. The company will generate between $31 million and $32 million in sales this year with six manufacturing facilities and a design studio.

“We've certainly been acquisitive,” Anderson said, noting that MDI has purchased 10 companies since 1998, with a pending deal in Mexico near the Texas border that should go through before the calendar turns to 2017. Anderson plans to purchase three blow molding and five injection molding machines before too long to support the Mexico business. Discussions with the OEM customer, which is in the electrical and telecommunications industry, will determine exactly when those machine purchases will take place.

Anderson said MDI has 3,500 active accounts ranging from Fortune 50 to mom and pop shops. More than 50 percent of the business is dedicated to the medical field. Custom dip molding and assembly each generate about 40 percent of the work although the company injection molds, extrudes and blow molds.

“We think we have the customers we need to grow. We are focused on growing a handful of customers,” Anderson said, noting that he believes MDI sales will reach $250 million in five years.

Interestingly, MDI sells globally, but Anderson puts limits on where it makes products.

“I don't want to have any factories outside of North America,” said Anderson, who employs 250. “It's just a personal comfort level with me.”

Anderson remembers when he bought MDI, the company dip molded one product, had $1.8 million in sales and employed 22 in Rancho Dominguez, Calif.

“I camped out in the conference room. I researched the industry, did a lot of phone calls,” he said.

A few days after closing the deal, he flew to Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York to meet with fellow dip molders. “I found the industry to be full of genuinely good people.” Anderson said.

Some dip molders shared financial statements. Others gave him their view of the industry. He wasn't surprised by their generosity because he would do the same.

“If I can help someone and it doesn't hurt me, I'll do it every time,” he said.

What keeps Anderson up at night?

“I tell people, I'm an old Jewish mother. Everything keeps me up. I live to cross things off my to-do list. I'm very goal oriented. What keeps me up at night? Employees, your good customers, banking partners, the general state of the economy. We've lost the ability to debate anything in our country. Debate is such a wonderful mechanism to get to the truth. You can't just live inside your own head,” said Anderson who said he'll “retire when they come with a toe tag for me.”