Stark has been team builder, apprentice advocate at Bekum

Williamston, Mich. —​ Martin Stark is a team builder who pushed a German-style apprenticeship at Bekum America Corp. nearly 25 years ago. He's from Germany, after all, as are many of the people at the Williamston maker of blow molding machines.

Given the headline-grabbing skilled worker shortage, Stark can't understand why the United States can't seem to get it together. About 40 percent of the Bekum America's 60-or-so manufacturing employees came through the company's four-year, 8,000-hour apprenticeship program.

"It's a big issue. It's getting bigger here in America. They will be in trouble if they don't start and do it right. And everybody's bitching about finding skilled workers," Stark said.

"What is so difficult, it's 200-300 years old from Europe? They know everything about it. Why can't we take $50 billion, instead of sending it to Iraq, you know, and develop this? Send 2,000 people to Germany to learn about it, how to do it right. And do it here. It's unbelievable."

Stark, 77, is chairman of Bekum America, the U.S. operation of the German extrusion blow molding machinery builder Bekum Maschinenfabriken GmbH. His plastics machinery career has spanned nearly half a century — 37 years at Bekum and before that, 10 years at Battenfeld of America.

Now, Stark is going into the Plastics Hall of Fame.

A lot of machinery people are already in the hall. Most of them are experts in technology such as engineers. Not Stark. He's not an inventor; his strength is management.

"My style is more a team builder. And the guiding comment always was 'people make the difference,'" he said.

He never went to a university but said his "college" came at his first job, at the big German company Robert Bosch GmbH.

Stark's belief in teamwork started earlier. He was five years old when World War II ended, living in a town of a few hundred people in southern Germany and going to grammar school in a one-room schoolhouse.

After the war, refugees and local people created a soccer club. Stark got into it, becoming captain of a youth team and then the secretary. Soccer laid the groundwork for his leadership style.

"You know, one good top-notch soccer player cannot win many games. You need a team behind you. I think I was good in building a team," he said. "And that's how I do it [in business]. It's not me who knows everything. I want to hire people who know more than I do, in their particular field. I want to form a team together. And that's what I did at Bekum."

In Germany, his parents sent him to a one-year business school run by Catholic nuns in nearby Dillingen, the county seat. After that, he signed up for an apprenticeship at a company that made agricultural equipment. Stark was training to be a commercial businessman.

"These programs were unbelievably good. You were going through all departments of the company," he said. "It was a three-year program and every four, five or six months you were moved to a different department. You were in shipping. You were in accounting. You were in sales. You were in customer service."

After the apprenticeship, he got a job at Bosch in a 4,000-employee business unit making appliances like refrigerators, dishwashers and washing machines. Stark was organized and worked hard. Management picked him to join a development program for young people.

"Every six months, I could choose what department I wanted to work in. It was incredible. I learned more at Bosch than at school," he said.

Stark worked at Bosch for 10 years, all of it in appliances.

"You went into the precalculation of the products, which you had to calculate: How much does this washing machine cost? Every nut and bolt had to be in the calculation. So, you learned how to calculate product costs. Then I went to purchasing. Then I went to materials, logistics. Then I was responsible for production line 1 and inventory to make sure all the parts are there on time."

He used those skills every day at Bekum. Stark's final job at Bosch was assistant to the appliances president. He sat in all the meetings with department heads, keeping minutes. He handled follow-up.

"It was awesome, really. That was my education," he said.

As a large German company with thousands of employees, Bosch kept a rigid structure. You stayed within your division.

"This was your line. You could not step over and do other things," he said.

He liked working at Bosch, but after 10 years, he was ready for a change.

Two of his brothers had immigrated to the United ​ States and were living in Chicago. In 1968, Max Stark was on vacation in Germany and talked his brother into moving here, too. Martin Stark was married with two very young children.

"And or course, he promised me, 'If you don't make it, I pay for your trip back home and everything.' So I thought, what I didn't like at Bosch at times was, if you see something in a department which you know is done the wrong way, it was none of your business to step in and do something about it. I wanted to work for a smaller company where my contribution can make a difference," Stark said.

Martin and his wife, Erika, planned to go to America for four years and then return to Germany when their 2-year-old son started school. He would learn a new language and culture. They stored all their furniture over in Germany and came by boat through New York.

"Well, 48 years later, I'm still here!" Stark said, laughing. (Max Stark plans to come to his brother's Plastics Hall of Fame induction.)

Only in 1969, it wasn't all that funny. Stark spoke very little English. His brother got him a job in a large Chicago bakery. He worked the night shift, starting at 5 p.m. and staying until 25 trucks got loaded with doughnuts, sweet rolls and cakes. That meant some 12-hour days.

Martin Stark, a highly trained businessman, was covered nightly in powdered sugar. He studied English in the afternoon, in classes filled with refugees from the Vietnam War.

"Sometimes I came home and complained to my wife that I need to do something different," he recalled. Without telling her husband, Erika wrote a letter to Frau Isabella, an advice columnist at a weekly German-language newspaper in Chicago: Her husband was working in a bakery … doesn't like it … English is limited.

"And she wrote back immediately that there's a company in Skokie, Ill., called Battenfeld, and Constanze Flindt is in charge there and they're looking for somebody," Stark said.

But by this time, things were going well in the bakery. He kind of liked it. He had responsibility to get the trucks filled in time.

"And I was doing good," he recalled. "I was really organized, so they gave me a little raise and with overtime, I made good money."

But then, about a month later, he asked his wife, 'Where's that letter again?' He called and got an interview with Flindt, the legendary woman who in 1964 had started Battenfeld of America, the U.S. operation of the German injection molding press maker.

Mrs. Flindt, as she was always called, liked Martin Stark and offered him a job. When he told her that Erika had been a legal secretary over in Germany, skilled at shorthand and typing, Flindt said, "Oh, I need her immediately!" he recalled.

Flindt wanted him to start the next day. But the ever-loyal Stark needed to give several weeks' notice to the bakery.

"She said, 'yeah, but your wife could start tomorrow, right?'" Stark said, chuckling at the memory. Flindt would dictate letters into a tape recorder, and Erika could type at home while watching the kids.

Stark started at Battenfeld of America in the fall of 1969, handling spare parts and materials procurement. He soon got promoted to vice president of the injection molding business. His well-rounded management skills meant he could handle any position.

Flindt was a rare female executive at a German machinery company. What was she like? "She was probably, at that time, the most powerful woman in the plastics industry in the United States. Seriously. She was on the SPI [Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.] board. She was very, very smart. And she gave me opportunities and supported me and my family all the time. I have the highest respect for her and [her husband], Bob Lemke," Stark said. "She was some woman, believe me."

Stark worked at Battenfeld for a decade, and then the German parent bought Gloucester Engineering, a blown film equipment maker in Gloucester, Mass. Battenfeld of America would be moving to Rhode Island. Stark had a decision to make.

Flindt and Bob Lemke continued working at Battenfeld of America for a few years, then left to create a machinery sales representative firm, ABC Lemke. They didn't want to move to Rhode Island. Neither did Stark. He explains that, as a newcomer to the United States, it took him a long time to make new friends in Chicago.

"And moving to Rhode Island would have meant I start my life new again, being basically 41 years old, which we didn't want to do." Michigan was just a few hours away, close enough to keep in touch with friends in Chicago.

Meanwhile, Bekum had a U.S. sales office in New Jersey, when Gottfried Mehnert, who founded the Berlin-based company, bought a Michigan blow molder of milk jugs, Baker Plastics. Blow molding consultant Michael Gigliotti helped him set up Bekum America in Williamston in 1979, to manufacture blow molding machines.

Stark knew Gigliotti through Flindt, who had worked with the consultant at a trade association. Gigliotti contacted Stark and recommended that Mehnert hire him.

Gigliotti remained a mentor to Stark throughout his career at Bekum. Gigliotti, who was named to the Plastics Hall of Fame in 2003, died in 2009. When Stark won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Plastics Engineers' blow molding division in 2006, Gigliotti had this to say: "Martin's presence had a calming, beneficial effect [at Bekum]."

Constanze Flindt Lemke died in 2003.

When Stark started at Bekum America in 1981, it was still in disarray after the move from New Jersey. His first job was the same one he had a Battenfeld: materials management, purchasing and spare parts.

"What I did in my first six months, in blue jeans, was go out in the shop organizing everything," he said. Three years later, he became vice president of operations.

But top management was a revolving door. Bekum American had four presidents in the first five years Stark was there. He got promoted to vice president and general manager in 1987, and then to president and CEO in 1992. He became chairman in 2010, stepping away from day-to-day operations.

Customers view industrial equipment as a long-term investment. Stark said turnover of top executives — even lots of turnover, in general — is bad for a machinery manufacturer.

Bekum has become a model of consistency under Stark's leadership.

Steve London, the president and chief operating officer, has worked at Bekum America for 30 years. Gary Carr, vice president of sales, has logged 29 years at the company. Owen Johnston, vice president and chief financial officer, is also a 29-year veteran. And it's the same for many of the other 115 employees in Williamston, located about 80 miles west of Detroit.

"That's what makes a difference for our customers," Stark said. "You promise something, you keep it. We take care of it, don't worry. This is what the company's all about. And Steve is doing an excellent job continuing on that level. It's just amazing the teamwork we have here, really. I am so proud of that, the way these people work and their dedication and their loyalty. It's so good."

Wolfgang Meyer nominated Stark for the Plastics Hall of Fame. Meyer met Stark at Battenfeld of America, where Meyer later would be president.

"We became friends right there, and our relationship has never really changed," Meyer said — even when Meyer was at a blow molding machinery competitor, Kautex Machines. "We always had the highest regard for each other."

Meyer said Stark recognized very quickly how to build a U.S. machinery manufacturing operation and make it profitable while other companies have failed. And Meyer said the loyalty of Bekum employees is impressive.

"I think it shows that this is a company that's well-run," Meyer said.

Stark thinks American manufacturers need to build apprenticeship programs. But America is not Germany. Stark understands that.

"[Apprenticeships have been] part of Germany for hundreds of years. And I can tell you, if a company with 20 people in a small town graduates one or two apprentices, it's front-page news in the local paper. The companies are so proud. It's part of the DNA, I would have to say, in Germany," Stark said.

Still, he would love to see that same level of enthusiasm in America. For a small maker of blow molding machines in a state with a massive automotive presence, Bekum's apprenticeship program has won outsize praise from the Michigan Manufacturers Association and government leaders.

Stark made the commitment to have an apprenticeship program back in 1994. Bekum America had several German employees, including the director of manufacturing and engineering manager. Like Stark, they understood how important it was to their own careers.

Stark got the ball rolling, but other key employees worked out the details with a local community college and recruited high school seniors. Stark pushed some details like preparing interview questions for the students and their parents.

"I wanted to know, is there respect for the family, for mom and dad?" he explained.

Bekum offers apprenticeships in four areas: machinist, machine builder, industrial electrician and steel fabrication/welder. Apprentices work 40 hours a week at Bekum and take classes at Lansing Community College, where they must maintain a 3.0 grade point average. When they graduate, with no college debt, they get a journeyman card and are only two classes away from earning an associates degree.

Stark said Bekum America is thinking about adding a fifth apprenticeship, on mechatronics, which combines electronics and mechanical skills.

Similar to the programs in Germany, Bekum apprentices give weekly written reports to management and participate in monthly meetings with the apprenticeship committee.

Bekum also works closely with the plastics program at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., which it sends a new blow molding machine every few years. Stark wanted to help Ferris State develop an advanced blow molding curriculum. He invited an associate professor, Larry Schult, to conduct a four-month sabbatical in Williamston, where he had access to every employee and all the company's technology. Bekum paid all expenses. Schult is now dean of Ferris State's College of Engineering Technology.

Stark also said it's important to get involved in trade associations. He has served as chairman of several committees, including the machinery division of the Plastics Industry Association.

"Sometimes for a small company, it was a little bit too much. But I learned a lot at those meetings. Every meeting I could learn something," he said. Stark met lots of people in the industry, whom he could call anytime for advice.

Stark calls his retirement a "step-by-step" thing. As chairman, he comes in about once a week for a few hours. He has his own office.

Stark feels good about Bekum America's future, with its experienced managers and employees. He hired them, after all, like assembling a World Cup soccer team.

"It's no different in business. If you don't have a team together, who works together and does things together to support your customer, you're not gonna be too successful," he said.

Read the Viewpoint on the Hall of Fame and find links to other profiles.