Industry veteran retires after 45 years

After spending nearly half a century in the Canadian plastics industry, Doug Winter, owner of injection molding firm, Universal Gravo-Plast Inc. (Scarborough, ON), has decided to call it quits, he announced Wednesday.
“I hit the magic age of 70 this year, so it’s time to retire,” Winter explained.
Universal has been sold to mechanical engineer, Gary Isberg, but Winter plans to stay on for a few weeks during the transition, he said.
After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1960, Winter spent 18 years working for various raw materials firms. In 1978, he teamed up with Don Young to buy Aclo Compounders Inc. in Cambridge, ON. Young left in 1985 and Winter acquired Universal the following year.
Throughout his career, Winter’s contributions to the industry did not go unnoticed. In 1984 he received a Canplast Award from SPI Canada, and in 1989, the Society of Plastics Engineers presented him with an Outstanding Achievement Award.
Winter’s replacement, Isberg, is a Queen’s University graduate with almost 40 years experience running manufacturing facilities, designing and developing new products, as well as bringing new products to market.
Universal specializes in a low-cost tooling technique, with a fast turnaround time, which lets inventors get started with a minimum outlay for mold.