Partnerships help i2tech keep growing

West Des Moines, Iowa — Injection molders can’t survive on just broccoli. They need a little ice cream, too.

Josh Janeczko made that analogy to describe why Innovative Injection Technologies Inc. works hard to cultivate great relationships with its suppliers and its customers.

First, on the supplier side, good relationships lead to new business.

“We are close strategic partners with our resin distributors and our resin suppliers. It’s one of our strategic initiatives; to really treat them better than any of their other customers. We treat them like a true partner,” Janeczko said.

In a typical example, a brand owner goes to a resin supplier looking to solve a problem. The resin supplier then looks to get a molder involved in the project. When that molder is i2tech, Janeczko has a new customer.

“It’s amazing how much opportunity we’ve been fortunate to receive when we treat our suppliers with the highest respect and involve them in the entire process, and involve them in our relationships with our customers,” he said.

On the customer side, i2tech specializes in complex, hard to mold jobs. “It gives us the greatest opportunity to maintain strong margins when we come up with a creative solution that our customers can’t find anywhere else,” Janeczko said.

That’s where the broccoli and ice cream come in.

“For the most part, when you take on those complicated projects, just instinctively your customers will give you some of the less complicated stuff, too. But sometimes you have to explain it to them, and say, ‘Hey, you know that project we did for you over there? I mean, that was a lot of work, right? How about we get some ice cream over here, some stuff that tastes good, rather than all broccoli.’”

The strategy is paying off.

It’s been 10 years since i2tech won the Plastics News Processor of the Year award. A lot has changed in the intervening years. The factory in West Des Moines, for example, is much larger now. Once it was two buildings, side by side. One was on top of a hill, the second down below. In the past year, the two buildings have been combined — not an easy feat, considering the different elevations. If you haven’t driven by i2tech in the past decade, you might not recognize it.

I2tech’s 2018 capital budget was $6 million, a record for the company. Employment hit a record level, too. The company invests heavily in new technology, including injection presses and automation cells. The average age of the equipment is seven years.

But the company’s strategy has not changed. It’s still all about partnerships.

“The key stakeholders within the value chain are clearly our customers, our suppliers, our employees, and then I throw in our community as well,” Janeczko said. “And so once we focus on those four areas, the rest kind of takes care of itself. And I don’t mean to make it sound so simple, because it’s not.”

The Iowa plant, originally named Mid-Central Plastics Inc., was founded in 1960. Morton Industrial Group bought it in the late 1990s, with big plans to grow a plastics business.

Josh’s dad, Robert Janeczko, ran the West Des Moines plant for Morton, and Josh was a Six Sigma black belt at the factory. But Morton ran into financial problems and had to sell off assets. Most of the plastics business went to Wilbert Inc. But Robert and Josh bought the West Des Moines factory in a management-led buyout. That was in 2003. At the time, the business posted sales of about $15 million.

Robert sold his stake in the company to Josh in 2014. Today Josh Janeczko, who is 43, is president, CEO and sole owner.

The custom injection molder posted 2018 sales of about $45 million. Key end markets include agriculture, automotive, industrial and recreation. Sales have grown about 12 percent annually the past three years.

“Most of that is through what we call net new business, which is just new market segments,” Janeczko said. “That’s driven by automotive. In 2013, we did zero dollars in automotive. In 2018, we did over $5 million. That’s not easy to do.”

I2tech has 36 presses in a wide range of sizes, although a large number are big machines. Eleven have 700 tons of clamping force or more. Five are over 1,600 tons. Few U.S. molders compete in that niche. The company has about 220 employees.

What makes a good project for i2tech? The company molds a lot of big parts, and components with molded-in color. I2tech also has expertise in part consolidation and metal replacement.

Janeczko pointed to examples where his team took a product with three or four fabricated components that required assembly and painting, and i2tech was able to redesign them to eliminate assembly and painting.

“I think that’s the highest opportunity for us, because it creates the most value to our customers,” Janeczko said.

Some of the companies that i2tech competes with have multiple factories around the United States, or even around the world. But Janeczko is happy to focus on a single plant, and to be in a position to make fast decisions. I2tech has had the same core management team for about seven years. He’s happy that i2tech has a single plant in suburban West Des Moines, near his home.

“I live two miles down the street, and my kids go to school two miles that way, and I play golf down the street another mile that way,” Janezco said.

His favorite part of the job these days is dealing with workers.

“I’m fortunate enough to have a team that’s really strong: operationally, quality, engineering, human resources and whatnot. So I get to choose what I want to do, which is employee enrichment, employee morale,” he said. “I get be the cheerleader out there, I get to talk to people and create a culture that is open and honest and fun, right?”

What keeps Janeczko up at night? Safety, which he called the most important risk to any business.

“I attend every monthly safety meeting. You know, something that can derail any successful company is a serious accident or serious safety issue. You don’t want to be that manager or that owner who has a home in Florida, and you’re never here, and somebody hurts themselves.

“I think that can be a competitive advantage, being active and having ownership involved. If there’s a safety issue, it’s gets dealt with immediately, no matter what the cost is.

“I’m just here every day and you’d be surprised at how many companies are run very casually, you know that their managers and supervisors just don’t have the same skin in the game.”