Kickstart: An anniversary and a memorial

When Bay Plastics Machinery Inc. celebrates its 25th anniversary today in Bay City, Mich., it will be a bittersweet party, also serving as a memorial for founder Tony Forgash, who died in June 2021.

The company launched when Conair decided to move its pelletizing equipment business out of Bay City and to Pennsylvania.

"In 1997, Dad decided that instead of uprooting his family and moving to Pennsylvania, he would leave and start his own company, and work to keep most if not all of the Bay City-area employees," said Jim Forgash, vice president of sales at Bay Plastics.

Tony Forgash already had a legacy in plastics machinery. His father, Anthony Forgash Sr., made pelletizers for Dow Chemical Co. in nearby Midland, Mich.

The company is now run by brothers Jason, Jeff and Jim Forgash, as well as Dick Fetter and A.G. Fath.

Tony Forgash is survived by four sons and his wife of 61 years, Ruth.

"He preached integrity to us our entire life," Jim Forgash said, "and was always concerned that he and everyone at his company did things the right way. He wanted people to understand he was a straight shooter, and that's how he did everything in business, and in life."

The tariffs on certain China-made products have always had positive and negative impacts, depending on which area of the plastics industry you represent.

Toolmakers favor them as providing a better chance to compete against molds made in regions with lower labor costs. Materials companies, however, prefer a more open trading policy. The American Chemistry Council said in a December study that tariffs add to inflation and supply chain problems.

With inflation rising, the National Retail Federation has also joined the fight and agrees with the ACC, claiming tariffs on China-made products increase costs to the average American family by $1,200 annually.

"Independent researchers and government agencies agree that ending tariffs is the fastest way to relieve the pressure of higher prices that American businesses, workers and consumers are facing every day," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a news release.

The NRF has also launched an advertising campaign to put pressure on U.S. leaders to reduce tariffs.

There are about to be more pedal boats featuring ducks, swans and dragons.

National Composites LLC is expanding into a new building in Fenton, Mich., to provide space to grow its American Recreational Products line, which includes the Paddle Wheel and Boka Marine brands.

If you're not familiar with the National Composites name, that's not a surprise. At the start of 2020, the company was one operation in Owosso, Mich., operating as Great Lakes Composites. Then between January and June of 2020 it acquired Molded Plastics Industries Inc., Excel Pattern Works Inc. and Sunrise Fiberglass LLC.

(Even a state of Michigan news release on the expansion referred to the parent company as "Northern Composites" rather than National Composites.)

Catherine Kavanaugh has plenty of details to bring you up to speed, though, in this story from 2020.