Ritchie focuses on smart growth

Ravenswood, W.Va. — The blue lights that project several feet in front of the moving forklift are new — part of a capital investment Star Plastics Inc. President Doug Ritchie made to improve safety at his Ravenswood compounding facility.

"The Ravenswood site has gone more than five years without a lost-time incident. We really pay attention to safety," said Ritchie, who wore a high-visibility vest and eye and ear protection as he toured a visitor around his plant that borders the Ohio River in western West Virginia.

The emphasis on safety is far from the only thing driving decisions at the thriving business Ritchie launched more than 30 years ago. In a town with a population less than 4,000 where Ritchie family roots run deep, a focus on sustainability, marketing and his team have propelled Star Plastics to double its business in the last four years.

"We plan to double it again in the next five years," said Ritchie, who did not disclose annual sales figures.

Star Plastics has two West Virginia plants eight miles apart that cover a combined 360,000 square feet. Gaylord box after Gaylord box of resin and product line the Ravenswood facility, which houses a fully staffed testing lab. Both Star facilities employ about 70, who keep the plants running around the clock thanks to two 12-hour shifts.

"Production and laboratory are always both running," said Ritchie, who founded the company as SDR when he was 27.

Star Plastics' business is primarily in the U.S., but it has expanded to China. The company has a nine-year partnership with a compounding facility that's licensed under the Star Plastics brand in Shandong province. While Ritchie has no direct employees in China, an employee from the Millwood, W.Va., facility leads that business development and travels there regularly, as does Ritchie. His trips last 10-14 days, and he's in China at least four times per year.

As a younger man, Ritchie knew he wanted to own his own business.

"I was going to find a business, a need, then develop the process and the team to fill it. I didn't start out in plastics; I'm not an engineer. I learned from doing. Plastics became the vehicle to do it, and now I love plastics," he said.

Star Plastics started out as a recycler, and that sustainability ​ legacy still informs the business.

"Being an environmentalist, I want to maximize the materials we have. I'm a heavy-duty recycler at home, too," Ritchie said.

Today, Star Plastics is marketing two materials that continue that legacy. A new product called ReStart will make its trade show debut at the Refocus Sustainability & Recycling Summit in May in Grand Rapids, Mich. ReStart contains more than 50 percent recycled content. It is marketed for the durables market, including appliances.

Additionally, Star Plastics launched Ecotech in 2017, a material consisting of ocean-bound plastics tailored for the electronics market.

"We're all about prime performance of our materials, but we can get there with sustainable materials," he said.

Ritchie says his company's green focus lines up with who he is. His philosophy: "You take care of what you have. I buy a car, I keep the car. I run it until it's done. I don't throw things away. I tend to use things as long as feasible, sometimes longer."

Ritchie credits the implementation of regular staff meetings in 2015 as one reason business has boomed since then. It pulled the entire team into planning and measured key performance indicators. He also credits his daughter and marketing coordinator, Molly Ritchie, for pushing him to market Star Plastics and to exhibit for the first time at NPE2018.

"Our customers love us. Other companies just don't know us," he said, pointing out on-time delivery reached 99.8 percent last quarter.

"We're focused on on-time delivery. Our people understand our goals. A lot of our success is because of our people. We need to make sure that we're easy to do business with."

What keeps Ritchie up at night?

"As we travel the globe with my team, there's many opportunities. A company our size has to be very strategic about which opportunity we chase. We want to evaluate those and see how our resources can be best utilized.

"We're looking at Mexico and Europe and how we fit. Do we have the right relationships? Can we adjust to the culture as well as understand the logistics so we can be cost-efficient and grow our customers? Looking at those opportunities is a real challenge when you only have so many resources," he said.