Wedtech, Wentworth Among Canada’S ‘Best’
Canadian Plastics
Two companies in plastics-related industries have been recognized to be among the top-performing companies in the country. WedTech Inc., a resin distributor and supplier of custom masterbatch compound...
Two companies in plastics-related industries have been recognized to be among the top-performing companies in the country. WedTech Inc., a resin distributor and supplier of custom masterbatch compounds, and Wentworth Technologies Co. Ltd., a maker of molds for the blowmolding industry, have each been named as one of the 50 best managed companies in Canada by the Financial Post.
Companies selected for the award must score higher than their competitors on a comprehensive audit of strategic business performance and management practices.
Toronto-based WedTech, which received a previous “Best 50” award in 1994, has built its reputation in the plastics compounding industry on innovation. President John Lefas has ratcheted up the company’s growth performance and expectations with the recent buy-out of his U.S.-based partner. A new $12-million, 145,000 sq. ft. facility in Houston is the key to Lefas’ plans to make a significant dent in the American market.
“There’s five to six times more polyethylene in Gulf Coast area of the U.S. than there is in all of Canada,” says Lefas. “Geography is an important part of supplying some of that market.” Lefas describes the new plant as the first of a three-phase project that will eventually see the Houston facility expand to more than three times its current size. The company would also like to increase its business in high-end engineering resins.
With 460 employees and over $100 million in sales for 1998, Mississauga, Ont.-based Wentworth Technologies has been riding a steep growth curve that has averaged 90 percent per year over the last five years. It is a growth spurt that shows no signs of slowing.
Wentworth, with seven subsidiaries located throughout North America and Europe, specializes in blow- and injection-molds for the packaging, automotive and other industries. Mold business accounts for about one-half of the company’s sales, according to president Walter Kuskowski. The company’s other core area of business, high-speed, precision vacuum-forming, accounts for the remaining portion of the company’s sales.
Kuskowski says Wentworth’s spectacular growth is a result of personal and strategic business goals: “In order to sell and service properly in a global market, you need to have a certain critical mass. We want to be able to offer our customers the highest levels of technology and service.”
It is this attitude that has turned Wentworth into the largest independent supplier of molds for blowmolding in North America.