USA, North Central

Ohio – Middletown, Dayton, Cleveland
Indiana – Gary
Michigan – Detroit, Kalamazoo, Menominee
Illinois – Chicago, Alsip
Wisconsin – Green Bay, Appleton, Menasha, Neenah, Steven's Point, Milwaukee, Madison, Park Falls, Marinette, Elk Grove, Eau Claire, Oconto
Minnesota – Minneapolis / St. Paul, Duluth, Rochester

Nature of Business:

Building, owning and operating CAPP Plastics Ltd., a manufacturing facility with products for both domestic and foreign markets. Products for B2B, for example, bulk orders of industrial recycled plastic pallets – capacity load/pallet, 100,000 lbs - various other pallets, patio blocks for the domestic market and other products. The channels to market were international distribution companies, manufacturer's representatives and direct sales.

Challenges:

• Issues surrounding partnerships, marketing, and business forecasting.
• Producing a high quality product while maintaining a low manufacturing cost - learning how to stretch your dollar as a manufacturer.
• Design a strategy that will facilitate the bulk sale of industrial pallets, capacity 100,000 lbs each.
• Steel mill potential customers could only afford purchase from operating funds, not capital investment in the industrial pallets.
• Pallets would need to be accounted for, as they were individually too costly to allow to be stolen.

Resolution:

High capacity industrial pallet example:

• A strategic partnership was created between CAP Plastics - the manufacturer (Green Bay, WI), Hoover Material Handling as the purchaser and tracker (Atlanta, GA) and CRL for maintenance and collection (Buffalo, NY).

In this operational design:

• CAP Plastics industrial pallets would carry a radio chip.
• Hoover Material Handling purchase the pallets, lease to the steel mills and track the pallets as they are shipped around the country.
• CRL coordinated throughout the US and Canada of empty pallet return and cleaning.
• CAP Plastics responsibility also included customer service and business development with support as needed from the other partners.

Ginny's beautiful Wisconsin home and property.

Fishing in Lake Michigan.

The spirit of Wisconsin: the Green Bay Packers.

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