Dutchland Plastics sees future upside to current downturn

By Dan Benson
Press correspondent

OOSTBURG — While many companies in the current economic downturn are retrenching and cutting costs, sometimes to the point of affecting their core services, Dutchland Plastics Corp. in Oostburg is using the current climate to re-energize its employees and double sales in the next five years.

A key step in achieving that is the recent announcement that the company plans on closing its older plant on the village's west side at 1026 South Ave., and consolidating operations into its newer facility on the village's east side in the Oostburg Business Park.

"We see this as an opportunity to look internally, get leaner and see where is the low hanging fruit" in terms of sales and profitability, said Sara Suckow, Dutchland's director of human resources.

When the consolidation is completed by next spring, all 190 employees in Oostburg will be working in the east side facility, which opened about five years ago. The company also has a facility in upstate New York, with about half as many employees.

Dutchland Plastics, a privately-held firm, was founded in 1967 by Bill Claerbout and is a custom manufacturer of more than 3,000 molded plastic products, including highway construction cones, kayaks and parts for lawn mowers, leaf blowers, playground equipment and other items. The company expects to have sales of about $22 million this year, down from the last two years.

"But we see (sales) coming back already," Suckow said. "We're on the road to expansion."

Claerbout died in September 2008. The company is currently headed by his sons Carl and Daven. Daven's two children, Lindee and Billy, also are employed by the company.

The spirit of family ownership percolates throughout the company, Suckow said.

Kevin Mentink, for instance, has worked for the company for more than two years, while his father, Craig, has been there for 29 years and his father-in-law, Rick Rogers, for nearly as long.

Mentink was helping make kayaks recently on a four-armed machine that's about 20-feet wide and almost 15-feet high. Plastic resin is poured into a rotating mold at the end of one of the arms and then baked in an oven large enough to hold several people. It's then cooled, after which the kayak is removed and then finished by crews elsewhere on the floor.

"It's kind of like baking brownies," Mentink said.

The company's family atmosphere also is reflected in "Red Fridays," in which employees are asked to wear something red each Friday to honor employees or their family members who are in the U.S. Armed Forces, 10 of whom are pictured on the wall in the company's front lobby.

"If you don't wear your red, someone will remind you to," Suckow said.

Besides the cost savings from consolidating operations, the company also is preparing to expand by launching a program to cross-train employees to do other jobs in the company, easing the path for future growth, Suckow said.

"First, our goal is to retain and retrain our employees and develop them into being able to do other jobs," Suckow said. "Then we can bring in outside talent to diversify as we expand."

"Cross-training makes each employee more valuable and more secure" in their job, Plant Manager Mike DeHaai said.

That doesn't mean there hasn't been some stress on employees.

"Change is always stressful. And it's challenging, no doubt about that," DeHaai said. "But there's been a great buy-in" by the workers.

The company recently held an open house for all employees, but especially for the west-side workers, to tour the east-side facility and ask questions.

The company also sponsors "Dutchland University," in which employees learn about dealing with stress, interacting with people from other generations and how other workers do their jobs, among other topics, Suckow said.

Suckow said the consolidation efforts should be completed by early spring. There are no plans yet on what will happen to the west-side plant, she said.

The company moved into the west-side facility in the 1970s. Since then there have been about a dozen expansions to that building, which is obvious when you visit the plant, DeHaai said.

"There is a lot of divided space," with walls marking where each expansion took place, he said.

In contrast, the east-side plant, which was built about five years ago and doubled in size in 2007, is open, better lighted and has high ceilings.

The east side also is expandable, unlike the west side facility, which is "landlocked," DeHaai said. The company can expand the newer building northward to county Highway A if need be, he said.

DeHaai said the better lighting and working conditions will also help employee morale as well as efficiency.