Comar excels with COVID response, employee relations

Woodville, Wis. — Comar LLC may be one of the fastest-growing plastics processors in the world in the past two years, opening multiple plants, moving into larger spaces and closing on some major acquisitions.

But even while it's been growing, the company has focused on training, retaining workers, adding staff and keeping workers safe. For the effort, the Voorhees, N.J.-based company was a repeat finalist for the Plastics News Processor of the Year award and the winner of the PN Excellence Award for Employee Relations.

"It's been a busy year. We launched three plants, and 2021 was all about getting them finalized, moving in equipment, and we knew it was going to be a lot of work. And it was more work than we ever imagined," CEO Michael Ruggieri said in a recent interview at the company's Woodville plant.

"We moved 150 machines and like 350 molds. And it's just staggering, the amount of work that the organization had to do to move machines, qualify molds, revalidate molds with our medical customers and pharma customers; it was intense.

"But we're over that hump, which feels really good. And you know what I've been talking about with the organization, in 2022, we now have to make this pivot from investing to optimizing those investments. So it took a lot of organizational calories to move all of that equipment and get plants stood up, hire a bunch of people. So now we've got to kind of get back on really driving the continuous improvement," he said.

The biggest hurdle was hiring and retaining people, he said.

"The churn of the workforce is like nothing I've ever experienced. And it's extraordinarily painful. And we felt that with contractors that couldn't get enough people, we feel that with us not getting enough people, we feel that with our suppliers, not getting enough people and not getting us product. So I think that the broad labor challenge was our No. 1 issue and continues to be our No. 1 issue," Ruggieri said.

"So 2021 was a great year in terms of the things that we accomplished," he said. "It was a really great year, but it was painful."

After a year where it was difficult to do traditional team-building events, things were back to normal — at least somewhat — in 2021.

"We took some really big strides in getting the local plants better at engaging their workforce and doing those things at a local level. So you probably saw, if you follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook, a lot more activity around local charity events, a lot more activities around local safety recognition," he said.

The company implemented a Star Awards program, where workers can be recognized with gift cards and cash bonuses for good work.

"It's a good way for people to get recognized more broadly," he said. "I think we've made some really good progress in the last 12 months."

Pahoua Thao, human resources manager at Comar's West Bend, Wis., plant, said having a "robust training culture" was important for attracting and retaining workers.

"The biggest challenge for us is to staff up. And as I get any candidates through the door, the next phase is engagement and training," she said.

"What that looks like for us here is that we have a Comar University, where we have a lot of internal training. And we've partnered up with some resources that provide us with more technical training course content, such as scientific molding," Thao said.

"Because for us, we aren't just teaching people to press buttons without really understanding the process. We're trying to develop them and say, 'Hey, there is a career opportunity here for you.' It's not just pressing buttons; it's also understanding scientific molding at a plastics plant."

Joe Nichols, quality process analyst in West Bend, said Comar offers plenty of career opportunities for new workers.

"If they're interested and they show a capability for it, then absolutely," Nichols said. "We have room to grow. The vast majority of our quality department, they don't really come from a quality background. We've moved them on up into our department because they had a knack for detail, they had an interest in how these things run, what is and is not acceptable. And they were looking for advancement.

"So we gave them a shot and the crew that we have right now, they've worked out pretty well," Nichols said.

The West Bend plant expanded in 2021 because one of its key products is containers for cleaning wipes, which were in heavy demand early in the pandemic.

"We've been very busy. We are filling a niche market here. But there's a lot more that goes into this than you might think," Nichols said.

"I spend a chunk of my day looking at plastic lids, and it seems like such a simple thing, but there are so many little factors and details that you get to look into. It's a lot more fascinating than I thought it would be."

Comar had 11 manufacturing facilities and more than 1,100 employees, all in North America, in 2021. In early 2022, the company expanded internationally, buying Automatic Plastic Ltd. in Wicklow, Ireland.

Keeping workers safe across that big footprint was a big achievement.

"The big challenge that we still face with COVID is the absenteeism. [If] somebody [tests] positive, they're out of work," Ruggieri said. "It's just a massive issue for us."

Until recently, if someone tested positive, they had to miss 10 days of work. More recently, it's five days.

"We've been doing a ton of communication around vaccination, and we are very big promoters of employees getting vaccinated. We will support employees in any way we can to help them. If they need time off, we give time off," Ruggieri said. "We've been putting just a ton of energy in trying to figure out how to get vaccination rates up. That has been a challenge, and they are not as high as we'd like them to be."

As of late January, about 63 percent of Comar workers were vaccinated. That number varies quite a bit from location to location.

"I think that's driven by tenure. The plants that have higher average tenure tend to have higher vaccination rates. We haven't been able to figure out exactly why that is. I think our sense is that more mature workforces are a little bit more open to it, maybe younger people aren't really sure.

"And the smaller plants absolutely have higher vaccination rates. And I think it's just easier to communicate in a smaller plant and get connected with the employees and, you know, discuss the benefits of doing it," he said.

Sue Dehn, a quality technician in the Woodville plant, has been a Comar employee for about two years.

"It's very well known locally and a very good company to work for," she said. "I really like the culture, a lot of positivity, people care about what they're doing. And you're rewarded for doing well. People notice that, and for myself, you know, starting as an operator and moving up quality technician, speaks for itself that they appreciate hard work."

Comar was founded in 1949 by Ruggieri's grandfather, and the company was originally a glass manufacturer. It moved into plastics in the 1990s and started to expand rapidly when it brought in private equity investors, initially Graham Partners and now Morgan Stanley Capital Partners.