Kickstart: Strong results and high morale at Berry Global

Since it's the largest plastics processor in North America, and publicly traded, we keep a close eye on Berry Global Group Inc. It's noteworthy that in the midst of a global pandemic and an economic recession, Berry just recorded strong results for the quarter that ended June 27.

Berry's net sales were up 50 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago, while its operating profit was up 61 percent and operating EBITDA was up 67 percent.

Looking beyond the numbers, Chairman and CEO Tom Salmon says the pandemic is bringing the Berry team closer together.

"The first thing that the pandemic has done has increase the level of morale, believe it or not, inside our company to heights that it hasn't been in a long time by the way these teams are caring for one another, caring for their communities and caring for their customers," Salmon said on a July 31 call with analysts.

Has Berry been a good investment in 2020? The company's stock price started the year at $47.52, dropped to $26.99 on March 16, and it's now at $49.99. So it's up about 4 percent in 2020, but if you bought it when everyone was panicking, you're up more than 82 percent.

Those numbers had a few of us speculating: Berry seems to be a steady, recession-resistant stock. Could it be doing even better if some investors weren't scared away by the "global war on plastic"?

Plastic have to be considered part of a sustainable future. Our question: Do investors understand that?

We've been writing about recycled plastic being used in highway construction for many years. But it seems like the technology is becoming more widespread.

Road crews in Northern California are currently using a mix of post-consumer PET and recycled asphalt to repave 1,000 feet of Highway 162 near Oroville, Calif.

Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, told The Mercury News that it's a good idea to experiment with news applications for recycled PET, but he noted that it would be even better to use a type of plastic that doesn't already have strong demand.

Sarah Kominek's story about the sale of duck decoy rotational molder Neumann & Bennetts Inc. naturally got me thinking about one of the funniest Plastics News stories in our 31-year history.

In 1993, famous author and Miami Herald humor columnist Dave Barry put Flambeau Products Corp.'s plastic mallard decoys on his annual list of Christmas gag gifts.

Barry loved the idea of taking a specific decoy model — one with the duck's butt sticking up in the air — and floating it in the holiday punch bowl.

Plastics News was lucky enough to have a contact close to Barry, through then-editor Robert Grace. We were stunned when Barry agreed to an interview.

The entire newsroom paused to listen as Jeannie Reall talked with Barry by telephone. She did her best to capture all of his off-the-wall humor, but it was tough since she was laughing out loud through the entire phone call!

We were all jealous of Jeannie that day. And whenever I see a duck decoy, I think of Flambeau, Barry, Reall and Grace.

Rhoda Miel is taking some well-deserved days off, so today's Kickstart is by Plastics News Editor Don Loepp. Follow me on Twitter @donloepp.