Kickstart: Acquisitions and big yellow duck pedal boats

Catherine Kavanaugh has an interesting story on a Michigan company that has quietly been creating a platform in fiber-reinforced plastics molding, buying other small firms to create a business with a range of production capabilities, sites and end markets.

National Composites LLC has gone from one plant in Owosso, Mich., to four sites just since January, and it's in search of more acquisitions. It's expecting to go from $5.75 million in sales last year to $20 million this year.

"Right now the goal is to at least buy one production facility a year to expand geographically," Chief Operating Officer Adam Fenton said. "Ninety-five percent of the market is mom and pop shops. Any time there's a segmented market like that there's bound to be consolidation and it's our goal to lead that charge."

One of the things that caught my eye, though, was a reference to one of National Composites' key markets, the marine industry, specifically supplying the makers of pontoon boats.

I've always thought of a pontoon boat as a floating front porch, but it seems that pontoon boats have picked up speed lately, not just in terms of sales of models with multiple motors to become a "wake-surfing pontoon boat."

"Pontoons used to have a single engine and you'd go out for a cocktail cruise. That's no longer the case," Fenton said. "They're doing a good job eating into what traditionally would be a V-hull market. You see that now with big boats that have twin engines on them."

But if that's not your speed, one unit within National Composites also makes something a bit slower: pedal boats, complete with a decoration featuring stately swans, a dragon or a big yellow duck.

At what point did we go from wondering if events will be canceled to thinking the cancellation was inevitable?

I suppose that's how I've viewed a lot of things on the schedule for the second half of 2020. I'd look at the calendar, see something I'd written down months earlier, then think, "Well that's never going to happen."

So the news on July 23 that organizers are "postponing" the next edition of the Fakuma trade show until October 2021, rather than Oct. 13-17 of this year, wasn't surprising. They cited the complications of getting large numbers of international employees to Friedrichshafen, Germany, in 2020, even if the show floor itself contains enough sanitation stations to host visitors safely.

In addition, UTech Europe announced it would take place in September of 2021, rather than April. (UTech is part of Plastics News' parent, Crain Communications.)

So the question we may start asking ourselves soon is whether an event now set for early 2021 may be at risk. Of course there's a lot of time between now and then, and a lot may happen. But it's something to wonder about.

No matter what Elon Musk may promise about Tesla, it's going to be a long time until you see autonomous vehicles during your travels. Unless, that is, your travel takes you through the Grand Rapids, Mich., airport.

The Gerald R. Ford International Airport is home to the first Large Area Autonomous Disinfecting (LAAD) vehicle, made by Pratt Miller Mobility and tasked with surveying passenger areas of the airport and spraying disinfectant.

Specifics about the robot's body haven't been released, but sensors and lidar are housed with plastic systems to allow the LAAD to "see" its surroundings and passersby as it cruises through the airport.