Kickstart: The 'resilience of the customer' is strong for decking

In Monday's Kickstart, Don Loepp wrote about Berry Global Group Inc. and how its sales have boomed as consumer product demand (and packaging for those products) climbed during the pandemic.

Today, let's take a quick look at another industry seeing big numbers during the pandemic: composite decking.

Trex Co. Inc. reported Aug. 3 that its second-quarter sales climbed 7 percent to $221 million, driven by homeowners spending money on home improvement projects. The demand came as Trex brought on an expansion at Fernley, Nev., that has all three of its extrusion lines up and running, President and CEO Bryan Fairbanks said in a conference call. More extrusion of the plastic and lumber composite decking is set to come on line soon in Virginia, and Trex expects to find customers for that production as well.

"It's fair to say that the resilience of the Trex customer far surpassed our expectations at the beginning of the pandemic when we saw key states with major population centers shut down large portions of their economies," Fairbanks said.

That demand is echoed in Trex's stock price. Shares that started 2020 selling at about $90 were selling at more than $144 on Aug. 3. (And up from $63 in mid-March.) Thanks to the rising share price, Trex will have a two-for-one stock split next month.

Trex isn't alone. While we'll have to wait until Aug. 13 for numbers from Azek Co. Inc. — a Trex competitor — we can already see how well its stock has done since Azek went public in June. Shares that sold for $27.15 on June 12 opened at $34.08 on Aug. 4.

Plastics News isn't the only group honoring women this week. Our sister publication Rubber & Plastics News is running profiles of Women In Tire & Rubber.

And Crain's Cleveland Business writes that Independence, Ohio-based Women In Manufacturing has just announced its inaugural Women In Manufacturing Hall of Fame inductees.

The WIM honorees include Melanie Cook, chief operating officer of GE Appliances; Sonita Lontoh, HP's global head of marketing for 3D Print & Digital Manufacturing; Susan Elkington, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky; and Laurie Harbour, the CEO of Harbour Results Inc.

Harbour was previously honored as one of the Women Breaking the Mold for PN and was PN's 2018 Automotive Newsmaker of the Year for her work in helping small and midsized companies adapt to global manufacturing trends.

If Lontoh's name sounds familiar, she spoke at Antec in 2019 about the important role women play in the plastics industry. During that event, she told the story about a recent visit to Europe where customers seemed to think that one of her male colleagues was the senior representative from HP.

"They didn't mean to be discriminatory," Lontoh said, but she wrestled with a polite way to communicate that she was the senior executive. "It would be uncouth to say, 'Hey, I'm the boss; pay attention to me.'"

Shoe company Toms has announced it will begin using Braskem's bio-based I'm Green EVA in an outsole of its shoes as part of its move to reduce its carbon footprint by 2025.

The California company also uses recycled polyester and plant-based dyes.

Meanwhile, San Francisco-based competitor Rothy's has started using the same post-consumer recycled PET it already uses in shoes and bags to make washable, reusable face masks.

"Over the past couple of months, we've taken time to develop a mask that is uniquely ours," Rothy's wrote on a company blog in April. "Meet the extra-soft styles that are just as comfy, sustainable and washable as your favorite Rothy's."

The company donated 100,000 nonmedical masks during the spring, before beginning sales of its new masks to the public. Currently the masks are sold out, but the company is taking orders for the next batch.