Friday, November 19, 2010

THANKSGIVING

Confer Plastics will be closed Thursday, November 25 through Sunday, November 28 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Regular hours will resume on Monday, November 29 at 7:00 AM.

May you and your families have a great holiday!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RECOGNIZES CONFER PLASTICS

Last night the Chamber of Commerce of the Tonawandas had their annual dinner and awards ceremony where Confer Plastics was recognized as the business of the year. It's a great honor, one that we really appreciate and it's a testament to the people we work for and work with.

The Tonawanda News was in attendance and reported on the night's festivities:


High Honors at Chamber dinner
The Tonawanda News



Bob Confer and John White were the toast of the Twin Cities Wednesday night.

The two men were honored as part of the Chamber of Commerce of the Tonawandas’ 72nd annual meeting and installation of officers. The event was hosted at Richard’s on Main.

White was honored as the organization’s 2010 Citizen of the Year for his work with numerous youth organizations, while North Tonawanda’s Confer Plastics was recognized as 2010 Business of the Year.

Both men were quite humbled to receive the recognition. “You and I are the two wealthiest men in this room,” White said of he and Confer.

The Chamber’s annual dinner awards a Citizen of the Year and Business of the Year. The citizen award dates back to 1956, while the business award began in 1985. Each year, the Chamber solicits nominations for both categories. “We’re very proud of both of our honorees this year,” Executive Director Joyce Santiago said. “They’re very deserving.”

White was chosen for his selfless work to offer Twin Cities kids recreational outlets. He organizes a free kids fishing derby each year, an event that has drawn as many as 800 area kids. In addition to founding Y Not and Rockin’ With Santa, White has also been involved with a number of service organizations, and has coached in the community. “Someone on our board said forget Citizen of the Year, where’s sainthood,” Santiago said.

White said the honor was “very, very humbling.” He added, “This room is full of caregivers. To receive this award from the best caregivers in the Twin Cities is quite an honor.”

He thanked his wife Kate for her encouragement and help. “There’s an old saying, ‘behind every man is a good woman.’ I disagree,” White said. “My wife walks right beside me every day.”

Exchange Club member Rob Albert presented White with the Citizen of the Year award. “His mindset doesn’t even allow him to think of himself first,” Albert said. “The kids are always first in his life.”

Confer Plastics was recognized for emerging as a strengthened company in the face of a harsh economic climate. “The fact that they continue to find ways to grow in this economy is awesome,” Santiago said.

Two years ago when the recession began, the company was floundering, Confer Plastics Vice President Bob Confer, the grandson of founder Ray Confer, said in accepting the award. The company saw a 30 percent decline in production and was forced to reduce its schedule to a three- or four-day work week. “It was a little scary,” Confer said, adding that he spent plenty of time trying to rip his hair out figuring out how to steer the company through such difficult times.

“Fast forward to today,” he said, “I’m trying to rip my hair out because we’re at the other end of the spectrum. We’re as busy as could be. We went from one end of the spectrum to another over a two-year period.”

Confer said the company never would have succeeded were it not for the people who work for it. “We got hungry, we got aggressive,” he said. “We’re here today because of the people, and it’s been that way since Day One.”

Now, Confer Plastics has expanded to a year-round business that operates on a six-day schedule 24 hours a day.

“It’s a cool honor to have, and we’re always going to cherish it,” Confer said. In closing his remarks, he thanked his father Doug, who still works for the company, for being a good father and boss.

In addition to the awards, the Chamber’s dinner also included the installation of the 2010-2011 Board of Directors. Officers for the next year include: David Burgio, president; Nancy Schmidt, first vice president; Carl Hoover, second vice president; William Reece, treasurer; Joyce Santiago, secretary; and Rhonda Ried, immediate past president.

Former Tonawanda Mayor Alice Roth was honored for her quarter-century of service to the Chamber of Commerce.

The evening concluded with a recognition of the Tonawanda News. Santiago presented Publisher Peter Mio with a plaque for the newspaper’s help in getting the organization’s message out to the public by designing and printing the Chamber’s monthly newsletter and inserting it into the News.

Monday, November 1, 2010

CONFER PLASTICS FEATURED IN TONAWANDA NEWS

Confer Plastics was featured on the front page of Saturday's Tonawanda News. Here's the report...


Success stories in chamber award recipients

By Neale Gulley
The Tonawanda News

Sat Oct 30, 2010




The Chamber of Commerce of the Tonawandas has selected North Tonawanda’s Confer Plastics as the body’s annual Business of the Year. They will be honored at the chamber’s annual dinner Nov. 10 at Richard’s on Main restaurant and banquet facility, 561 Main Street, City of Tonawanda.

Confer Plastics, at 97 Witmer Road, was started in 1973 by Ray Confer at the Roblin Steel site before moving to its current home in 1986. Today the business is run by his son Doug and grandson Bob Confer and is even now adding jobs.

Bob Confer offered the News a tour of his massive 98,000 square foot factory packed with blow molding machines for a variety of goods — from wildly popular kayaks and sleds to kids toys, pool equipment and a massive number of other products sold at major retailers throughout the country and the world.

Eighteen members of the current workforce have remained with the firm for 18 years or more. While the company employed 110 machinists and other employees in April 2010, “next week we’ll be at 215,” Confer said.

His grandfather Ray bought a farm in Gasport (where the family still resides) after returning from military service during World War II, and dabbled in plastic chemistry before working for a couple like firms before using his farm earnings to open the company that continues to see growth in North Tonawanda.

Throughout the 1960s, Ray engineered uses for plastic that are downright legendary and familiar to most people today, such as the “living hinge” that involves a simple piece of crimped plastic used on millions of tool boxes, instead of interlocking hinges.

Today the range of products the company produces and ships for clients seems boundless.

“Any idea people bring to us,” Confer said of the custom goods the company fabricates.

“One thing that helps us a lot is our ability to make very large pieces — out competitors can’t really do that,” he said describing two new machines the firm jumped to acquire.

Other factors contributing to the company’s success, he said, are the elimination of some competitors that didn’t fare well through the recession, and major companies vying for market share since the financial meltdown who are producing new products aggressively.

Two big contracts Confer is now producing are the molded kayaks sold in places like Dick’s Sporting Goods and a new children’s castle set based on Disney’s Rapunzel that breaks down into a pint-sized table and chairs for sale for sale at mega-retailer Target.

About 130,000 units have already been ordered.

The company that sells the kayaks expects to increase volume of that product as well.

Challenges to doing business, he said, rest largely in the cost of electricity, which Confer — whose weekly opinions can be found in a column that appears Tuesdays in the Tonawanda News — said is equivalent to two villages of Middleport. But his location near the biggest Canadian and U.S. markets is a major plus.

“I would say a lot of (our success) comes down to the know-how of the employees,” Confer said. “There’s the fact that we can make the large parts, but it’s also the intellect.”

Tickets and information about the chamber’s annual event are available by calling the chamber at 692-5120.