Comar wins Excellence Award for industry, public service

Voorhees, N.J. — In a pandemic year, we all quickly learned the value of cleaning wipes.

While factories around the world shut down in March and April 2020, plastics processors that made wipes containers and lids were busier than ever. They were considered essential businesses, so they needed to find a way to safely stay open to meet unprecedented demand for their products.

Comar LLC was one of those companies. And not just wipes — Comar generates more than 75 percent of its sales from medical and health care customers, so 2020 was incredibly busy at its nine North American molding and assembly plants.

On top of that, Comar made a significant acquisition in 2020, plus it started construction on new molding plants in California and New Jersey. And if that wasn't enough, Comar also started moving into a new facility in West Bend, Wis., a move that was unplanned at the beginning of 2020 but was necessary to meet skyrocketing demand for rigid containers for disinfecting wipes.

"I think our organization accomplished more in 2020 than I've seen many organizations accomplish over decades, and to do all that, during a pandemic, I think just speaks to the quality of the team and the organization," CEO Michael Ruggieri said. "What the team was able to do was just absolutely remarkable."

And for its successful year, staying open, creating jobs and making essential products during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Voorhees-based company earned a spot as a finalist in the 2020 Plastics News Processor of the Year competition and the PN Excellence Award for industry and public service.

Comar is a first-time Processor of the Year finalist. And in another notable first, too, the company is our first-ever finalist that's owned by a private equity firm.

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 sold the glass business in 2007.

The company started to expand rapidly when it brought in PE investors, initially Graham Partners in 2013, and Morgan Stanley Capital Partners in 2018.

But even with private equity owners and rapid growth, the team at Comar has managed to retain the culture of a family business, Ruggieri said.

"What set us up to be successful in 2020, I think, goes back to the values of our organization. And we've been really fortunate to be able to kind of maintain some of the family culture that's existed in this business through the years," he said.

"And as we've grown and professionalized the organization, we've been able to keep that core," Ruggieri said. "I'm a really firm believer that if we have everybody swimming in the same direction, we can accomplish anything.

"And I think you see it across the business, there isn't anybody in the organization that believes they should get special treatment or should be dealt with differently or should have a different expectation. I won't ask anybody in the business to do anything that I won't do myself. I think that kind of view has been really helpful in a really difficult time. We're all working through this together," Ruggieri said.

Comar has a diverse portfolio of plastics processing expertise, including injection molding, mold making and blow molding. The firm has 870 employees and more than a million square feet of manufacturing space, with plants in California, Wisconsin, Georgia, New Jersey and Puerto Rico.

But it's not standing pat. The company currently has two major facilities under construction, one on each coast: a 230,000-square-foot custom facility in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., that will replace existing plants in Rancho Cucamonga and Garden Grove, Calif., and a 159,000-square-foot injection molding and assembly plant in Vineland, N.J.

The company plans to continue to grow through acquisition as well, with an eye to become a global supplier and add new technology. As an example, its January 2020 purchase of iMark Molding in Woodville, Wis., added scientific molding expertise, plus customers in the medical diagnostic and surgical device sectors.

"M&A will continue to be an important aspect of our value creation for the organization," Ruggieri said. "We continue to be very active looking at businesses; it's a big part of what we do. We're selective, we are a bit picky about what we buy, we want to buy companies that help accelerate the organic growth of the organization, but we will remain very active in the M&A space."

In addition to bricks, mortar and machines, Ruggieri said Comar has made huge investments in building its management team in recent years. He credited the private equity owners, saying they had become a foundation for how to capitalize the business.

Morgan Stanley "absolutely put their money where their mouth was, in a big way," Ruggieri said. "You know, they're not a slash-and-burn type private equity firm; they allowed us to make capital investments. … We've made huge investments in people and in the plants, so they really have been committed to the investment in organic growth, which has been fantastic."

When the pandemic hit, Comar officials realized right away that the company's factories needed to stay open. About 90 percent of its products were essential, including containers for wet wipes, disinfectants, nutraceuticals, vitamin supplements, diagnostic products and symptom relief products.

"We set some really clear priorities early on," Ruggieri said. "The first was be cautious — safety was the No. 1 priority — we had to be really thoughtful about keeping employees safe."