This Firm Has A Mold For Success
Published in The Hamilton Spectator
(April 10, 1996)
When Garrtech Inc. president Tony Paget goes to work, he ducks in the back door. There’s nothing sneaky or timid about it. Mr. Paget likes to be on the shop floor; to make sure he talks to his friends and keep communication with the front lines open at Garrtech – which designs, makes and consults on precision moulds for the plastics industry – rides the success rocket.
“It is one thing for management to say it has an open door policy,” says Mr. Paget. “It is something else to really live it. That’s one of our strengths.”
Born of a business plan in Mr. Paget’s head at the height of the recession and up and running by November 1991, Garrtech’s numbers – when compared to 1992’s year-end – are impressive.
Sales have risen from under 500,000 to more than $5 million last year. Seventy-six per cent of sales are export. The customer base which began at three has also increased to 52 and is still climbing. The company’s payroll has gone from $200,000 with four employees to $1.5 million for 23 staff.
The company – on Grays Road at Community Avenue – started with Mr. Paget, Rob Fazackerley, Graeme Lambert and Russell Norman figuring there was room for another firm in the plastic mould industry.
State of the art
Using state-of-the-art, computer-assisted design and manufacturing, Garrtech designs, manufacturers, repairs and modifies blow moulds for the plastics industry for everything from automobile windshield washer bottles to picnic coolers and shampoo bottles.
“We have a huge cross section of work, from large companies to small ones and many different types,” says Mr. Paget.
Too many companies that start small as Garrtech did get hooked up to one large customer and suffer the ups and downs of that customer’s particular business, he says.
A big part of Garrtech’s success is a little more technical. The company’s continual upgrading of its CAD/CAM systems and up-to-the-minute 3D software allows the company to read the 3D CAD files generated by customers and provides the opportunity to participate in the manufacture of more complex moulds.
To stay competitive, says Mr. Paget, Garrtech also has to stay technologically advanced, using the highest-powered design computers available and knowing which manufacturing equipment to buy.
“Unfortunately, in this business what you buy is obsolete when you get it…,” he says.
The hardware, the heavy investment in machinery that can automatically change its own cutting heads at the nod from a computer and the strict attention to detail and customer needs have all played a part in Garrtech’s fortunes.
But Mr. Paget seems to be most proud of its people and the successes the team has had working together. “We have to let people be creative”, he says. “There are no policemen here.” “This is not high school and we don’t have hall monitors to enforce the rules.”
There’s no voice mail at Garrtech. Too impersonal, says Mr. Paget. “This is strictly a hands-on management and that also means hands on the telephone.”
With customers from Europe to Japan and back again, Garrtech is fighting a unique battle to grow and still stay small enough to maintain its flexibility, he says.
Too much growth too fast can sink a good thing faster than a recession, he says. “We have to keep our diverse customer base and sometimes even turn work down if we can’t make the delivery,” he says. “It is important to establish credibility with the customer. If we say we can do it, we will do it.”
To meet its needs for more space, Garrtech is building a 5,000 square foot addition this summer to house administration, sales and engineering.
The space these departments now occupy will be turned over to shop activity♦
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