Kickstart: Key thoughts about the past, future for auto suppliers

Just a couple of months after I started as a reporter for Plastics News, one of the first companies I wrote about was Key Plastics LLC, an injection molding auto supplier that entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2000.

Key's route through the court system taught me a lot about all the twists and turns that can take place in the bankruptcy system.

In a way, I've felt a special tie to those molding facilities that kept on turning out parts during the past 20 years, even as their corporate parent went through a range of changes.

Eventually becoming part of Novares Group SA, they became an element in a global company with leadership that took big moves to establish a presence wherever the auto industry was, while also investing in startups that would allow it to be a part of a changing auto industry embracing electric and autonomous vehicles.

But, of course, no amount of planning or caution could have seen the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Now Novares finds itself under court protection from creditors as it seeks a sale or restructuring through the French bankruptcy process. It has received funding to open the bulk of its European operations as it works through the system.

What happens to this company — and any company — during a continuing global panedemic will be hard to predict. But for the sake of all those workers at those molding plants who have already been through decades worth of ownership changes, I hope it transitions smoothly to whatever shape it will take next.

Read more on my thoughts in this week's Viewpoint column.

Bill Bregar liked being around people. He liked to pick their brains, to find out what they liked and why. (He also liked to tell everyone what he liked, and why. Many, many times.)

Asking "what" and "why" questions are a vital part of being a reporter. Curiosity is what got many of us into this business. Bill also enjoyed sharing what he'd learned with younger reporters and anyone new to the industry — both for plastics and in journalism. Bill, a reporter with Plastics News since it launched 31 years ago, died of an apparent heart attack April 5.

So it seems appropriate that there is now a Bill Bregar Memorial Scholarship, backed by the Society of Plastics Engineers and Crain Comunications, the owner of Plastics News.

The sponsorship will go to men and women studying journalism and communication for plastics and manufacturing. Here's more information.

And now, to lighten things up, how would you like to be handed a hat the next time you actually go out for a snack? Not just any hat, but one made with pool noodles as a very visual reminder of how much space you should leave for social distancing.

Cafe & Konditorei Rothe, a coffee shop and bakery in Schwerin, Germany, has gained some social media fame for the hats it handed out to patrons sitting at its outdoor tables during the weekend.

The cafe's owner, Jacqueline Rothe, told My Modern Met that the hats not only kept people apart, but they also were fun.

"In these difficult times, it's a pleasure to make others smile," she said.