Kickstart: Duo-Form named a 2022 Michigan Manufacturer of the Year

Thermoformer Duo-Form Plastics of Edwardsburg, Mich., has been named a Michigan Manufacturer of the Year for 2022 by the Michigan Manufacturers Association.

The company won a Manufacturing Excellence Award in the Large Tier category.

"We would not have won this award without the help of our entire Duo team, from production floor to mid‐level and senior management," said Shelly Ditmer, Duo-Form's president.

"We have reinvented the way we think about employee culture and engagement. Our focus on the Duo culture has resulted in increased productivity and effectiveness through the creation of a Culture Task Force and a Duo Safety Team."

The awards honor "the most innovative, game-changing, groundbreaking, cutting edge products and leaders" in Michigan manufacturing.

Duo-Form specializes in heavy-gauge thermoforming for the recreational vehicle industry. During the pandemic, it also pivoted quickly to making face shields for first responders.

"When COVID hit, we would not have turned around a superior face shield in 48 hours without a strong teamwork mentality," Mike Gonser, vice president of operations, said. "Our staff has remained flexible and reactive from the beginning of COVID until now, as we continue to innovate, grow, and develop new products and product lines."

Duo-Form last year broke ground on a 41,700-square-foot addition to its Edwardsburg plant. Duo-Form, a division of Duo-Form Acquisition Corp., ranked No. 33 in Plastics News' most recent survey of North American thermoformers, with an estimated $46 million in annual sales.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing the manufacturers of PFAS chemicals, including 3M and DuPont, charging that the materials endanger public health and cause irreparable harm to the state's environment.

"As a result of a decades-long campaign of deception, PFAS are in our waters, our clothing, our houses, and even our bodies," Bonta said in a Nov. 11 announcement.

"The damage caused by 3M, DuPont, and other manufacturers of PFAS is nothing short of staggering, and without drastic action, California will be dealing with the harms of these toxic chemicals for generations," Bonta said.

A DuPont official told Reuters that the company believes it was incorrectly named as a defendant, noting that DuPont has never made some of the materials mentioned in the lawsuit. "We believe these complaints are without merit. ... We look forward to vigorously defending our record of safety, health and environmental stewardship," the company said.

3M said in a statement the company "acted responsibly in connection with products containing PFAS and will defend its record of environmental stewardship."

Coca-Cola Co. has faced a lot of criticism for being permitted to sponsor the COP27 climate talks in Egypt. Activists called Coke the "world's biggest plastic polluter," and charged that its headline sponsorship of the event amounted to greenwashing.

Eco-Business noted in a Nov. 14 report that Coke finally responded to the criticism, noting that it has been "actively engagely" at COP events since 2009 with the goal of "listening and learning, and constructively engaging in positive climate action."

"We agree that we have a responsibility to reduce the carbon footprint of our value chain and we transparently report our progress while taking more action to address the serious challenge facing the planet," the company said, according to the Eco-Business report.

"We firmly believe that the perspectives of all stakeholders should be involved in climate discussions, including those who have historically not had a voice. While we recognize that we have more work to do, we believe that effective climate solutions will require all of society to be involved including governments, civil society, and the private sector."

Coke has a goal to use at least 50 percent recycled material in its bottles and cans by 2030.

Earlier this year, the company also announced that it is eliminating the use of green PET in North America, a move designed to help boost bottle-to-bottle recycling, and converting the majority of its Dasani water bottles in the United States to 100 percent recycled PET.