Turner Group Inc. is observing a quarter century of representing plastics industry equipment manufacturers in the West.
“For our celebration, we took our team and their spouses over to Catalina Island for the weekend” of Feb. 10-12, said President and CEO Laura Douglas. “We wanted to show our appreciation to the team and thank their families for sharing their loved ones with us.”
The weekend on the California island 26 miles off the coast was a buzz: zip-lining, charades, a three-hour golf cart scavenger hunt, “wonderful meals together and Sunday morning in cabanas at Descano Beach before returning [to the mainland] by helicopter,” she said.
The team consists of several engineers with chemical and plastics expertise, marketing specialists, a toolmaker and a finance major. “We approach the market with team resources, and any customer can work with any TGI employee as they wish,” she said.
Douglas founded Turner Group as a limited liability company on Feb. 26, 1992, in Seattle.
“I started Turner Group when I was still Laura Turner” she said. She had been in Pulaski, Va., with melt-delivery-components manufacturer Xaloy Inc. for six years and moved to Seattle to “start fresh.”
Turner Group was incorporated as a Subchapter S corporation in July 1995. Norm Boshoff joined in 1995 and Chuck Roehm in 1996. Boshoff retired in 2010, and Roehm is now vice president and manager of operations and extrusion products.
The agency covered Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alberta initially, expanded into Utah and Colorado in 1996 and added California, Arizona, Nevada and the Mexican states of Baja California Norte and Sonora in November 1999.
With few exception, Turner Group represents eight manufacturers in the western U.S., Canada and Mexico:
Graham Engineering Corp. extruder division American Kuhne Inc., Arburg GmbH+Co. KG subsidiary Arburg Inc., IPEG Inc. auxiliary equipment supplier Conair Group, material handling specialist Dynamic Conveyor Corp., Reifenhäuser Group engineered components maker Reiloy USA, Sepro Robotique SAS subsidiary Sepro America LLC, Barnes Group Inc. hot runner subsidiary Synventive Molding Solutions Inc. and MuCell microcellular foaming technology firm Trexel Inc.
“We cover all lines in all regions,” Douglas said. “Two suppliers, Dynacon and Synventive, use Mexico-based agencies, but since most are U.S.-based companies, we work together and support them regardless of representation. Arburg has Brad Rimmelin in the San Diego and Tijuana region; we represent Arburg in the remainder of the territory.”
Douglas guides the team under an ethos that the group has no heroes. “The overarching goal of Turner Group is to be exceptional,” she said. “We aim to create prosperity, well-being and peace of mind for ourselves, our customers and our suppliers. Integrity is the most critical element of this philosophy, and it means we have to choose the right suppliers for the benefit of the customers, aligning our goals with delivering leading technology, quality, after-sales support and stability.”
Legally, Turner Group is based in Seattle, but “the biggest area for us is based in Laguna Beach” Calif., where Douglas and Boshoff, her husband of 2.5 years, reside.
Douglas says the business “is based wherever we are at the moment. We are digital and mobile.”
Turner Group withholds sales details but recorded gains of 20 percent in both 2015 and 2016.
“We are anticipating more growth in 2017 and plan to add one or two more persons this year,” Douglas said. “Current projects are trending close to 30 percent more than last year at this time.”
