By Christina Harper
Special to the SCBJ
Business success comes in all shapes and sizes but at Achilles USA, Inc. in Everett it comes in rolls and rolls of plastic.
The Everett site is celebrating 35 years of being in business, more than three decades of making premium quality film and sheeting used in many areas, including the auto industry.
Achilles’ Everett plant, which employs about 150 people, nearly all of its 164 employees in the United States, purchases raw materials such as PVC resin from Texas and other ingredients from the Midwest to create rolls of plastic that are sent out worldwide.
“We have to ship to the East Coast, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia,” said Yasuo Negishi, president at the Everett plant since 1987.
Service offices are located in New Jersey, California, and Michigan, where an office opened in Detroit last April to focus on automotive needs, such as covering new car seats, he said. Honda and Toyota are among Achilles’ list of customers.
Achilles, the originator and main supplier of ‘static cling’ self adhering vinyl, also makes material for the health care industry, including ID bands for patients, feeding bags, cold packs and inflatable mattress pads.
When the company was first created its employees made industrial fabrics and water pads, then expanded to other products such as for book binders and plastic fabrics used as boat windows and welding curtains.
The company is also making a weatherproof decking product that is easy to install and replace. Achilles products are brought to market in phases, adding new goods every five years or so. Presently, the company is trying to expand into building construction materials, Negishi said.
In Japan, a metal siding with polyurethane filler also is being made in Japan and being sent to the US for product testing in two houses in Tacoma. The Everett plant may consider manufacturing that product, too, if the American market shows interest in it.
“It’s a prototype in the marketing stage,” Negishi said.
One of the reasons that Achilles USA keeps growing so successfully is not just the quality of the product but the quality of the people who work for the company, a factor that’s “very important to us,” Negishi said.
In 2007 there were 10 employees who were recognized for 30 years of service, a clear indication of the low turnover ratio at the company.
People enjoy working at the Everett plant. At one time three generations of one family were working there together in various roles, he said.
“We are very family oriented,” said Donna Deisher, human resources manager, who has been with Achilles USA for 15 years.
“We still have a Fourth of July party,” Deisher said. “If the company is making money they share it. The management style is very positive.”
The future for Achilles USA brings the challenge of surviving as a domestic manufacturer in the U.S. while still excelling in the quality and cost of its products. Depending on the market, the company is competing with China in 50 percent of their product lines.
“The trend in the future will be more and more so,” Negishi said, “but we will continue to make innovative, high quality products,” Negishi said. “To make the best quality in the market in the most cost effective way to compete.”
The Achilles Group headquarters in Japan, founded in 1947, is worth $1 billion. The forty-acre Everett plant, Achilles USA, contributes $70 million a year to that pot.
For more information, visit www.achillesusa.com.
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