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Spring 2000 · Vol 12, Number 2 In This Issue
I am most pleased to report that West Chemical had an excellent first quarter. Both sales and operating income were nicely ahead of our profit plan and last year. In fact, our pretax income for the first quarter of 2000 was roughly four times greater than 1999. The Asian flu is behind us at Petron and Petron continues with excellent growth. The partnership with ExxonMobil continues to grow monthly, as well as our achievements in the pits. We now are selling Petron mining products in over 20 different countries. Our industrial segment of Petron is also doing quite well, and we have just received an outstanding three-year contract with Prestone Corporation. It is anticipated that this new contract will be over one-half million dollars annually. Sales at West Canada continue to grow, and we have just obtained new business with a multi-plant food processing operation which will be, essentially, new business for West Canada in 2000 A.D. Trials are also set up for testing at two Norampac facilities in Canada, with the potential opportunity for us to dramatically increase our pulp and paper sales. Penetone continues to be somewhat behind plan; however, our focused marketing and sales efforts are beginning to bear fruit. Through the hard work of our military sector, we just received a new multiyear contract for Penair HD-2 which we anticipate will be several hundred thousand dollars of new business. In addition, Penetone is enjoying excellent success with Citrikleen HD-1 for the cleaning of pipelines, and we look at this market as an outstanding new opportunity. March continues to be strong for our company, and we anticipate that both our sales and operating income should be nicely ahead of 1999. Keep up the hard work and focus. We look to the year 2000 as being a very fine year for our Company. You can market yourself and your company without annoying people! We have all come across self-promoters who make us want to run miles in the other direction. However, you can market yourself in a way that people don’t find offensive. Here are some handy, common sense ways to help you get the job done.
If you practice the above concepts, I am sure you will see a difference in the way your customers react to you personally and professionally.
Phil and I had been busy developing a formula to meet the changing type 1 requirements, which eventually called for safety on many metals including aluminum and cadmium plated steel, plastics, and polyimide wire insulation. Test procedures changed, some because of our input, and some despite out input. Many formulas were tested, and many failed. We found a combination of components that met the (final?) spec. (finally!), and called it Citrikleen HD 7937F (Yes, A-E were those other combinations that didn’t work), after its ancestor Citrikleen HD. The Air Force liked the product and granted it the exalted “Qualified” status, but didn’t like the name, fearing confusion, so Penair HD-1 was born Penetone saw that it was good, and unique. We found it so good and so unique that a patent application was started, and the Air Force saw that was bad. The time was a few years after the Gulf war, and the government still felt that secrecy was needed. As patents require full disclosure, this was not good at all. The government insisted on secrecy, and the application was set aside, and one might say ‘on the seventh day, the patent application rested. For a few years, we sold Penair HD-1 (and developed, qualified and sold HD-2, HD-3, and HD-4, for what is a spec. without a few types?), and the Air Force continued to see that it was good. MIL-C-87937B became MIL-PRF-87937C (a “D” revision is in preparation as you read this), but the Air Force continued to see that it was good. Jets that were dirty were cleaned, and all were happy. In the fullness of time, concerns lessened, the secrecy restriction was lifted, and the patent application awoke. Like any creature that has been asleep, the application was somewhat confused and hungry. We fed the application (i.e., the patent examiner) more information with help from our attorneys, and the application grew. On December 14, 1999, the application become a patent, granted jointly to Phil Figdore and me. Patents are never strong without constant attention and protection, and that includes our new one. There are tales to be written about that, but those are stories for another time. Petron continues to march on to better sales, more people, and more production capacity. For the first four months of our fiscal year, we are 5% ahead of our sales plan and better yet we are 17% ahead of prior year. Jeff Kaiser’s division continues to increase the product offerings as well as to expand outside of the traditional Milwaukee marketing area. Jeff is working on accounts in Canada, Connecticut, Kentucky, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Florida, etc. Bob Colombo’s division is getting some good impact from a strong cement industry as well as a rebound in the copper and taconite markets. Single source contracts seem to be the latest rage in the mining areas throughout North America. Although large oil companies may be getting the main contract (Tier I), our specialty products, service and support have allowed us to maintain our existing business and in some cases increase our market share. In order to keep the momentum going, people and production requirements need to keep up. In the last 12 months the following people have been added to the team and/or took on increasing roles within Petron: Suzanne Raschhofer, Accounting; Lisa Stabenaw to Purchasing/Customer Service; Laura Conwell, Sales & Marketing Assistant; Tim Spath to Lead Warehouse; Anthony Alston to Production Supervisor; Ricardo Spencer, Compounder; Jose Gonzales, Compounder; Mike Goeden, Industrial Sales Engineer; Ramon Valenzuela, Sales Engineer Mining Division. And Dennis Patti is in the process of hiring an additional person for the Quality and Technical Department. People are what really make up a company and determine its ultimate success. At Petron, I am pleased to say that the team we have, and continue to build on, are a top notch group that continue to meet the challenges presented to them everyday. In addition, to the people aspect, we also have continued to add more equipment to meet the growing demand. Pat Ray is in charge of the plant expansion which is in the beginning stages of adding 3 more storage and/or mixing kettles. This will increase our capacity by an additional 40,000 gallons once completed. The project will take 8 weeks to complete and in addition to the tanks we will be making numerous plumbing and piping changes as well as adding pumps, load cells, and level indicators. We are also revamping our entire bulk loading and unloading area which will further enhance our SPCC program at Petron. The conversion to the new computer operating system (Chempax) is soon to be complete and nobody will be happier than Roger Wichner. So as you can see, Petron continues to grow and change to meet the challenges and opportunities of doing business in 2000 and beyond. Thanks to everyone at Petron for all their hard work and dedication. 1999 Employee Awards
In Administration, Sharon Stegemann received the award. Sharon, employed by Penetone for the past 6 years as its Credit Analyst, has a strong record of successful collections. In addition, Sharon has gone above and beyond her job by taking over elements of the Military contracts function.
For the Operations department, Luis Suruy was awarded the honor for the U. S. Luis, a 12 year veteran of Penetone, is responsible for keeping everything working from the boiler to the lights to the agitators on the mixing tanks. And, as anyone who works in or visits the Tenafly facility will tell you, he is most deserving of this award. Volkert Lindloge received the award for the Operations department in Canada. Volkert has been West/Penetone’s Materials Manager since his hire in 1971, as well as is now overseeing the Customer Service department. Volkert has been very successful in keeping our raw materials costs in line. Congratulations to all for jobs well done. Birth Announcement Congratulations to Nathalie St-Amant and Francois Proulx on the birth of their son, Antoine. Antoine was born Wednesday, April 5, 2000 and weighed 7 Ibs. 14 oz. The little family is doing well. New Hires West/Penetone formally welcomes Robert Williamson, Sales Rep.-Food, Central Region; Steve Tellier, Sales Rep., Supermarkets, Eastern Region, Madalina Nimigeanu, Chemist (replacing Nathalie while on maternity leave); Steve Bongelli, Sales Rep., Supermarkets, Central Region; Simon Young, Sales Rep., Supermarkets, Central; Martin Vaillancourt, Production Worker-Powders; Alain Pageau, Production Worker; Jean-Pierre Tardif, and Ronald Genovesi, Distribution. As stated in John McHale’s article, Petron too has expanded its workforce and we welcome Ramon Valenzuela, Sales Engineer, Mining; Ricardo Spencer and Jose Gonzales, Compounders; and Laura Conwell, Sales & Marketing Assistant. |
The development of our latest patent, for the technology sold as Penair MD-1, has a long history that goes something like this: In the beginning, there was Citrikleen HD, and the Air Force saw that it was good. So good, in fact, that the Air Force, in cooperation with Penetone, begat MIL-C-87937. Unfortunately, Citrikleen HD no longer was good enough to satisfy the new spec. Not unlike the bible, MIL-C-87937 begat MIL-C-87937A which begat MIL-C-87937B. The Air Force saw that it was better.
We are pleased to announce the 1999 recipients of the departmental Employee of the Year Awards.
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Tel: 262-797-4680 |