Sales & Marketing

A new report from the firm Research in China (Beijing, China) shows that, even though the global economic downturn in 2008 and 2009 impacted injection molding machine sales worldwide, including the Chinese import/export business, Chinese domestic demand resulted in 2009 IM sales 9% above 2008's level. 

IQMS (Paso Robles, CA) users can now manage and view their CRM, work flow, inventory, customer pricing, sales orders, capable to promise (CTP), shop-floor production information, and more from their BlackBerries. IQMS developed the application to meet the needs of the growing portion of its customer base that use the mobile devices to connect to the office while they're on the road.

A recent study conducted by Kotler Marketing Group in conjunction with several automotive supplier associations was revealing but not surprising. The study said that 72% of part suppliers believe they have superior capabilities to low-price competition, but most match the lowest bid 56% of the time. While the vast majority of study participants perceive themselves as having an advantage over their competitors in terms of either technology or service-and-support capabilities, they struggle to get rewarded for the value they create.

A broad swath of 15 plastics industry suppliers participating in PlaticsToday's Executive Roundtable in Chicago last week agreed that the worst of the historic economic downturn is largely behind us. Their activity will bear that out. But they also cautioned that while the future is always (by definition) uncertain, the lessons of the immediate past can't be ignored by anyone who intends to stay in the game.

PlasticsToday's Clare Goldsberry has written books for molders and moldmakers that include business and marketing strategies. Based on her long experience, she's come up with five key points to running a successful mold manufacturing operation.

Calling upon its extensive in-house experience with trade shows, SPI: the Plastics Industry Association (Washington, DC), is offering what it calls Concierge Service, a program to help companies that want to exhibit at major plastics shows but are put off by the time, cost, manpower, and logistics involved.

In a tight economy, being creative can be the key to capturing new business, so molder/moldmaker Hollywood Plastics Engineering Co. (San Fernando, CA) has been exercising its creative muscles, offering a program that provides free tooling on qualifying custom injection molded parts orders. The offer is valid on all special orders that meet specific process requirements with respect to complexity, quantity, and materials.

If you've ever gotten exasperated listening to a white-collared CEO talk about his company, using business-school buzzwords that seem to say very little but take up plenty of space, then there is a good chance you'll find something very satisfying in watching a machine manufacturer's president, in casual dress and with his shirtsleeves rolled up, tossing bulky blobs of plastic purgings into his company's new purging recovery system and cranking it up as he explains the unit to an unseen audience.

Injection molding system and automation supplier Engel North America has named Adams Engineers & Equipment as the newest representative of the Austrian-based global firm, handling sales and support for Engel clients in Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.



Citing exponential growth in the demand for bioplastics in Europe, Cereplast Inc. (Hawthorne, CA) has extended its distribution agreement with A. Schulman Inc. (Akron, OH) to include all of continental Europe, and Schulman, which previously concentrated its Cereplast distribution on France and Germany, will be expanding its product offerings  based on the Cereplast materials.