Davis-Standard: Making it in manufacturing

Connecticut may not be the most hospitable place for manufacturers, but you'd never know it by talking to Charles Buckley, or by walking through Davis-Standard LLC's sprawling plant in Pawcatuck.

Buckley, the president and chief executive officer of Davis-Standard, says the global manufacturing firm is growing, thanks to booming exports, a worldwide economic recovery and a skilled local work force left largely intact throughout this state's Great Recession, which bruised and battered many other manufacturers.

"Our business is really taking off," says Buckley. "We're up about 10 percent from 10 months ago," he says of his growing work force of about 375, which includes plant executives, manufacturing workers as well as those involved in research and development.

"About as much of our business now comes out of Asia as it does North America," says Buckley, who is trained as a certified public accountant but has been involved with industrial companies for decades. "The emerging-markets growth has been a big benefit to us."

Buckley says that Davis-Standard, a global manufacturer based in Pawcatuck, saw some retraction in both sales and its work force during the recession, which he says was the worst he's experienced during his career.

But he says the global manufacturer of specialized extrusion equipment - which can make everything from sophisticated medical tubing to plastic drinking cups and toothpaste tubes - did its best to work with its employees to keep layoffs at a minimum.

He said management took pay cuts, up to 28 percent in some cases, and worked with the plant's union, Local 2705 of the International Association of Machinists, to keep jobs intact and work flowing - even during the most difficult days of the economic downturn.

The strategy, say Davis-Standard executives, was to maintain the skilled work force so it could nimbly capitalize on increased orders when the economy showed the first signs of recovery.

So while others were downsizing, Davis-Standard was investing in new products. "In the midst of the recession, we did two things. We reduced costs by more than $20 million (companywide) and we carved out those areas to invest in for our long-term future," says Buckley.

The beginnings of that economic upturn began in 2009 and grew in strength this past year, as Davis-Standard saw big increases in equipment orders worldwide. Davis-Standard has three U.S.-based manufacturing plants, including its longtime Pawcatuck facility, as well as sites in Germany and the United Kingdom. It also has research-and-development centers in Pawcatuck, New Jersey and New York and in Germany.

"Since 2009," says James Murphy, president of Davis-Standard's Extrusion Systems, "we've seen an increase in growth of our exporting activity." The domestic market, he adds, is growing, as well, but hasn't yet fully recovered.

As Buckley, Murphy and other Davis-Standard executives walk through the large factory floor in Pawcatuck, workers are busy assembling a host of extruding machines bound for Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe.

The machines, which can range in price from five figures to millions of dollars apiece, are used by a host of industries to, basically, extrude or shape plastics and other materials into all sorts of applications, from industrial tubing and cables to food packaging.

Buckley says in its simplest terms, an extruding machine is like the Play-Doh extruders that children use, where the Play-Doh is inserted in one end, a special shape is attached at the other and the modeling compound is squeezed through and comes out in that particular shape.

It's overly simplified, he admits, but it's a good way to explain how the often-huge machines with their special screw-like extruders can be used in the manufacture of consumer or industrial packaging, or in agricultural applications, or by the automotive, building and medical industries.

Inside Davis-Standard's corporate headquarters adjacent to its manufacturing operations are two glass cases displaying some of the goods produced from its specialized machinery. The list is long, ranging from Solo brand plastic cups to Tyvek insulation, as well as egg crates, industrial wire including that used by the cable television industry and aseptic packages, including the popular compact juice boxes used by children.

Davis-Standard officials, in fact, estimate that more than 50 percent of the U.S. packaging market relies on their equipment. "Most of your (consumer) packaging, it's fair to say, comes off a Davis-Standard extruder," says Buckely. That can range from the special foil lid on a Folger's plastic coffee container to the foil tops for those individual coffee cups, or "K cups," used in Keurig-type coffee machines. Even the plastic trays that are used by supermarkets to hold fresh meat and chicken can come from those extruding machines.

Focus on customers

The Davis-Standard plant in Pawcatuck includes a large testing and research-and-development component, where new equipment for customers can be tested or new applications.

Other parts of the plant include the actual assembly of the extruding machines and a large area where the machines are given a final test before they're readied for shipping, usually in a truck or within a large shipping container bound for an overseas ship. Davis-Standard employees will often travel overseas to supervise the often-massive machinery's installation, sometimes staying for several weeks.

Customer service, says Murphy, the extrusion systems' president, is important at Davis-Standard. Both he and Buckley say the local work force is invested in its products, working with management to improve the machinery or enhance customer service. Productivity at the plant is also strong.

Gary Freitas, who heads Local 2705 at the plant, says management-labor relations are good. He says that the careful moves made during the Great Recession to keep most of the work force intact benefited employees, and the local community, as well.

"It helped to protect and keep our union members working," says Freitas.

Buckley agrees, and says the work force at the Pawcatuck plant is a very skilled, and technically savvy, group - one that he didn't want to lose during the downturn. While other manufacturers that downsized their staff are still playing catchup, hiring workers, retraining, making up lost time, Davis-Standard and its employees are experiencing a surge in work. Freitas says his union local is encouraged by the increased hiring at the company.

"This is a tremendous, experienced work force," says Buckley. "This is the best group of people I've worked with in my career."

a.cronin@theday.com