A new generation steps up at Brentwood Industries

For nearly 50 years, Brentwood Industries Inc. has been family owned and operated.

There's no plan to change that anytime soon as a third generation is transitioning into control of the plastics processor.

It's just been days since Caitlin Banta settled into the CEO's chair March 31, taking over for her father, Peter Rye, who had taken over from his own father, Palle Rye, in 2010.

"In 2010, my father passed the torch to me and I'm now doing the same to Caitlin," Rye said. "This is something that we've been leading up to for quite a while. The intent is to keep the family in the business and keep the family running the business."

The transition from between father and daughter has been very intentional, and Rye is staying on with the company as chief strategy officer to help provide support. That's a change from when Rye took over from his own father, Palle Rye.

Palle Rye purchased the company, then a small thermoforming operation in Reading, Pa., from Dana Corp. in 1975.

"My father's transition out of the business was more abrupt. We had some more struggles with it," Rye remembered. "My father was 74 and still president and CEO running the business. As would happen, health issues cropped up.

"It was a sudden transition," he said. "I think having had that experience, I sought to do it differently."

While Rye was thrust into the CEO chair quickly, even after working for the family firm for years, Banta's move has been measured. She's been with the company since graduating from Tufts University in Boston in 2011, learning different facets of the company all along the way. In her younger years, Banta also interned during summers at the firm.

Brentwood does most of its work in thermoforming, which accounts for about 70 percent of the company's business. Another 20 percent is injection molding and the remaining 10 percent split between a variety of other processes and services. The portfolio is split into providing products and services to three markets: cooling systems, water and wastewater processing, and medical.

Brentwood, however, does not view itself solely as a plastics processor. The company provides deep expertise and experience in the markets served, Rye said.

"I feel like I've grown up in this business. And I'm very passionate about continuing on what my family has built. I think we have enormous opportunity in all of our product lines. I've spent time to learn our products, learn our markets and learn our employees. I think together we can achieve great growth," Banta said.

Brentwood just about doubled in sales and number of employees, now at about 1,000, under Peter Rye's leadership.

While feeling prepared to become Brentwood's new CEO, Banta also understands she is stepping into a position with great responsibility.

"It is certainly a weight. But I feel very lucky that Peter has been working with me for many years to prepare me for this moment, and also lucky that Peter is staying on," she said. "I appreciate that he still will be greatly involved in a very important way in the company. And he can guide and support me as I find my footing."

One imprint the new CEO wants to have with the company is creating a greater sense of connection between Brentwood's manufacturing locations around the world. "I'm intent on building one culture, process, and set of standards that are felt and lived by every global team," Banta said in a separate statement.

Brentwood has six locations in the United States, including three in its headquarters town of Reading as well as international sites in Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, Czech Republic, Thailand and India.

It comes in at No. 30 in the most recent Plastics News ranking of North American thermoformers with an estimated $98 million in related sales in the region.

Business school studies will say the transition between the second and third generation of a family company is typically more difficult than between the first two generations, but Banta says she has put in more than a decade at Brentwood and is ready to lead. Work life, however, has not always had an easy path to traverse as daughter of the boss.

"It's challenging to be a member of the family and in a junior position. I had to decide what was important to represent the family and myself as a member of the family. There are optics to consider," Banta said.

"There's this awareness that people can view you as being entitled, that you didn't necessarily earn your role. I think that puts an extra burden on the family member to really perform in the role. There's always this effort to overcome those perceptions," Rye said.

Banta added, "I would say I had to work really hard at it. I had to show up early. I had to make sure that I really proved my work and my commitment to the company."