Kickstart: The long transition

When Paul Caprio announced he was stepping down as the head of Krauss-Maffei Corp. — the U.S. branch of German machinery company KraussMaffei — the editorial staff here at Plastics News collectively mused about where he'd turn up. Too young to retire, we jointly said. He must have something else in the works.

Then at the start of this year, everyone found out as Engel Machinery Inc. in York, Pa. — another U.S. operation of a European press maker, Engel Holding GmbH of Austria — brought Caprio in as its next leader.

One of the most interesting elements of the announcement was that Engel Inc.'s current leader, CEO Mark Sankovitch, didn't plan to retire until the end of 2021. That meant Caprio and Sankovitch would have two years to work on transition.

Shortly before coronavirus travel restrictions hit, Editor Don Loepp went to York to talk to both men about the changes, and the learning curve for Caprio.

Don's story is one of the profiles from this week's report in the print issue about CEOs in the plastics industry. Other profiles will be running online throughout this week, posted in alphabetical order.

And while we're on the subject of CEOs, some of you may remember that at one point PN had annual rankings of CEO pay, which looked at their total compensation.

We haven't been doing that for a few years because there are some very complicated issues related to which companies we could track, and who we tracked within those companies. But Hollee Keller, our editorial research coordinator, has continued to keep tabs on filings from public companies.

As she notes in her blog, you should never confuse a CEO's salary with their total compensation. Don Walker, the CEO of auto supplier Magna International Inc., officially has a base salary of $324,000. His actual compensation package was worth $18.2 million in 2019.

Last month, Hollee's data also pointed us toward a note from one of the big rotomolders near Cleveland. She'd heard that Simplay3 expected big growth in 2020 as a result of people spending more money on items (and toys) for the home during the pandemic.

Seems Simplay3 isn't alone. Step2 Co. Inc. announced Sept. 8 that it purchased the assets of a Georgia rotomolding business to meet increased demand. It's also hiring more workers in Ohio.

The reason?

"Families are spending more time at home during this pandemic. As such, many are looking for a variety of active indoor and outdoor play experiences for children while also seeking outdoor comforts to entertain and relax at home," Step2 CEO Tony Ciepiel said in a news release.

Considering the number of "first day of school" photos I've seen recently of kids with makeshift school desks, I suspect that the growth curve will continue for rotomolders.