UNITED WAY FOOD DRIVE AT CONFER PLASTICS

Everyone is familiar with the United Way, a national non-profit with 1,800 branches across the US that help facilitate the funding and management of various community organizations and programs.

Here in Niagara County the United Way partners with groups like Big Brothers/Big Sisters; the Boy Scouts; the Girl Scouts; YWCA; YMCA; Family & Children’s Services and a dozen other organizations. You can learn about the local United Way online at: http://www.uwgn.org/

The United Way is known for teaming with employers and their employees to conduct fund drives and offer a venue through which people can contribute in other ways, including volunteerism.

This September, we will have one of the annual fundraising campaigns here – our first of many - hoping to emulate the success of local companies like Delphi, the Seneca Niagara Casino, and Wegman’s.

In the meantime, we will lend a hand in some of their other endeavors.

First on the list is a food drive.

Beginning Wednesday, May 1st and running through Friday, May 17th we will have a box located just in the factory where donations of non-perishable foods can be placed (please no glass jars).

This food drive is extremely important as it will be used to stock food banks and community food pantries across Niagara County.

Most people donate to food drives at the holidays thinking it’s the most important time of the year. It’s important, but the need is even greater at this time of the year because school lets out in June and families who utilized the free meal systems at public schools need some way to keep their families fed.

So, please help and donate what you can – it will have huge impact in homes and neighborhoods across the Niagara Frontier.

ASSEMBLY VIDEO FOR THE CONFER CURVE STAIRCASE

CONFER PLASTICS LOOKING FOR A MACHINIST

Confer Plastics, Inc. is now accepting applications for the position of machinist.

Our machinists modify/repair blow molds and design, build, and modify tooling and fixtures needed in the blow molding process. Knowledge of machining is required; a minimum of 5 years experience as a machinist is preferred.

We are not looking for CNC machinists. We are in need of machinists experienced in Bridgeport mills, engine lathes, and horizontal boring mills. Aluminum welding is a plus.

The position is full-time permanent, Monday to Friday on our 1st Shift (7:00 am to 3:25 pm).

Starting Wage is commensurate with experience.

Send resume to:

BOB CONFER
CONFER PLASTICS, INC.
97 WITMER ROAD,
NORTH TONAWANDA, NY 14120

EMAIL: bob@conferplastics.com

FAX: 716-694-3102

Please, no phone calls.

THANK YOU FOR THE CONTINUED SUPPORT!

We thoroughly enjoyed the incredible amount of support from the community during our open house. It was really awesome to know that 600 people were interested in seeing what we do.

We are just as impressed by the support that continues to this day -- we have received many "thank you" cards, emails and phone calls from those who visited us. Wow!

That's why we stay in Niagara County -- we're lucky to be a part of such a great community full of great people!

PHONES & EMAILS OUT AGAIN

Confer Plastics' ongoing saga with phone and internet connections continues. Earlier this year we went 4 straight days without both and experienced outages of 24 hours on two other occasions. Our provider allegedly fixed the problem within the network of our North Tonawanda neighborhood.

Maybe they did. Maybe they didn't.

This afternoon a nearby lightning strike shut off the connections again. So, if you are finding it impossible to connect with us via phone, fax, or email on Wednesday, April 10th (and likely Thursday, April 11th), you are not alone. And, we didn't close.

This has proven to be one of our great frustrations of the year -- no company in this modern era, especially one that sells globally, can afford to be without communications. You need to contact us and we you.

We are sorry for any inconveniences and we hope that our provider has the situation rectified soon.

CONFER PLASTICS' OPEN HOUSE WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!

Our tour guides

On Thursday, April 4^th, Confer Plastics celebrated our 40^th anniversary with an open house. This 8 hour event allowed our friends, families and the community at large to tour our facility and see what we do and experience manufacturing, something that few of them ever had. 

We purposely scheduled the open house during the Easter Break to welcome adults and children alike. It worked: Nearly 600 people toured the plant and kept our 12 tour guides extremely busy. 600 people… impressive!

All of the attendees were very excited as they got to see our team transform small beads of plastic into swimming pool ladders, dock, and kayaks, while learning about the science of blow molding and the history of one of Niagara County’s largest manufacturers, one responsible for the invention of everyday items like the living hinge and flexible fuel funnels.

Following the tour, the visitors were treated to a buffet meal catered by Suzanne’s Fine Dining. They also got to take home some souvenirs --- our utility steps for adults and sleds for the kids.   

You can see dozens of photos from the day here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151432273993962.1073741825.190308268961&type=1&l=1bf9d79194

Thank you for everyone who worked together to make the event a success and thank you to all of the visitors who took the time out of their days to experience and share our company.

It was a great day and we look forward to the next open house when we celebrate our 50^th anniversary!  

BLAST FROM THE PAST: THE SNOWBLADE

One of the products we made long ago suddenly has some resurgent popularity.

A half dozen times over this past winter we received emails from individuals across America who had used a friend's Snow Blade and did a quick search on the internet to find one of their own. This brought them to the sample parts gallery on our website, the only place where this classic sled could be found online.

Unfortunately, we were unable to make their search a fruitful one as this item is no longer available and we would be unable to sell them if they were --- these sleds were made for a custom manufacturing client who in turn sold them to their clients (department and hardware stores throughout the Northeast).

The customer for whom we made them was named Buddy "L", which was founded in 1910. Over the course of the mid-1990s we made a few thousand SnowBlades for them. It was an interesting sled...a single blade with a seat that one would ride downhill while sitting upright, almost like a bicycle.

Production of these sleds ended around 1994 and Buddy "L"  soon fell on some hard times. Buddy "L" had been sold to Empire Industries in 1990 and within 10 years Empire filed for bankruptcy.

During Empire's bankruptcy, the molds became the property of the larger creditors and the whereabouts and status of the molds are unknown. No one has made a SnowBlade since we stopped in 1994.

Who knows, maybe someday someone will unearth these molds and make the sleds. They've certainly proven to be able to stand the test of time and are beloved by anyone who uses them.

THE FLEXIBLE FUEL FUNNEL & CONFER PLASTICS

As we celebrate our 40th anniversary and look back at some of the products that we've produced over the years, consider the flexible funnel. This ubiquitous fuel and oil funnel can be found in garages all over the world and everyone who has ever owned a vehicle is familiar with them.

The roots of the funnel can be traced back to Confer Plastics, Inc.

The funnel was designed by a then 23-year-old Doug Confer in the mid-1970s, an idea that was formulated while working on the family farm and seeing a need for an inexpensive and more useful funnel than the rigid, expensive metal funnels that were on the market at the time.

Confer Plastics made hundreds of thousands of these in the 70s and early 80s before the company got out of the funnel market due to the patent having come to an end and the item becoming a commodity made in volume on the cheap overseas by our competitors.