Recognizing Plastek Industries for all-around excellence

In baseball, the biggest stars are called five-tool players. In plastics, Plastek Industries Inc. is a seven-tool processor.

I'm referring to the seven criteria we use to judge the Plastics News Processor of the Year award. They cover nearly every major aspect of running a business: financial performance, quality, customer relations, employee relations, environmental performance, industry and public service, and technological innovation.

Plastek, the Erie, Pa.-based global packaging injection molder and toolmaker, is a three-time Processor of the Year finalist. It's scored well every year in some of the categories, most notably customer relations, employee relations and public service. These are strengths that have been ingrained in the family-owned company's culture.

This year we can add environmental performance to that list. Plastek has been tracking and improving sustainability-related metrics including carbon footprint and emissions. Officials are proud to report that the company is well ahead of its peer average.

In fact, Plastek now finds itself helping customers step up their use of post-consumer resins, which will become important the next few years as consumer product companies work to meet ambitious recycling-related goals.

Having Plastek as a Processor of the Year finalist has been a treat for me because it gave me the chance to meet company founder Joe Prischak, a plastics industry legend. Joe just turned 90, and he'll be inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame later this year. Four of his sons are active in the business: Dennis, Douglas, Daniel and Donald.

I mentioned Joe getting into the Plastics Hall of Fame to Dennis in a recent call, and Dennis joked: "Dads are supposed to stop making their shoes bigger at some point."

Plastics News has been honoring top North American plastics processors with our Processor of the Year award since 1996. We've honored a pretty wide variety of companies, large and small, every end market imaginable, several different processes and a few ownership types. Plastek is a great addition to our list.

I've been honored to be part of the project since the beginning in 1996, initially as a judge, and since 2013 that's also included visiting all of finalists in person. This year my visits were solo trips, because Bill Bregar, our senior reporter who was the coordinator for the award for 14 years, died unexpectedly last year.

Our Processor of the Year finalists frequently tell us that because our process is so detailed, just participating helps them to become better companies.

That's a point that Philip Katen, the president and general manager of 2010 Processor of the Year winner Plastikos, made in a letter to the editor last year.

Philip wrote that Bill made Plastikos a better company. He added: "We would not be where we are today without the fingerprint that Bill Bregar left on us. He will be missed. I miss him."

Philip strongly encouraged us to rename our annual Processor of the Year award in Bill's honor. Because just as the Stanley Cup belongs to Lord Stanley and the Lombardi Trophy belongs to Vince Lombardi, the Processor of the Year belongs to Bill Bregar.

So we're pleased to announce that the winner of the 2020 Processor of the Year award will receive the first Bill Bregar trophy, featuring a cartoon likeness of Bill by our beloved editorial cartoonist Rich Williams.

We think this makes the award even more special, and we think Bill would have loved the gesture.

Finally, I want to salute the other Processor of the Year finalists, and thank them all for all of their cooperation. I know it takes a lot of work and time, and I appreciate all of your efforts. I'd like to thank the companies I visited in person and also the ones I visited virtually.

Without Bill to debate the companies' merits, I spent a lot of time talking about them with my wife, Laura. At one point or another, she was convinced that each of the companies deserved to be the winner.

In fact, she even tried to convince me to make it a four-way tie. After everything they went through in 2020, they all deserved to win. She had a point!

Comar LLC, an injection molder, blow molder and toolmaker based in Voorhees, N.J., won the PN Excellence Award for Industry and Public Service. The company was honored for its COVID-19 response: staying open, creating jobs and making essential products.

Diversified Plastics Inc., a custom injection molder and 3D printing specialist based in Brooklyn Park, Minn., was honored with the PN Excellence Award for Customer Relations. The company helped customers quickly bring new products to market and step up production of lifesaving equipment.

MMI Engineered Solutions Inc., an injection molder and toolmaker based in Saline, Mich., was honored with the PN Excellence Award for Employee Relations. MMI was cited for prioritizing its workforce and their safety during the pandemic year, and taking steps to ensure sustained growth and a strong future for the company.

All deserving finalists. In fact, all winners.

Loepp is editor of Plastics News and author of the Plastics Blog. Follow him on Twitter @donloepp.