Ep. 32 | Darin Dubbs Talks Workforce Strategy and Stability at Primex Plastics on The Hub with Michael Allen

A company can say it values people, but what does that actually look like on a random Tuesday when production shifts, retirements hit, or a team needs talent right now?

On this episode of The Hub, host Michael Allen sits down with Darin Dubbs, Director of Human Resources at Primex Plastics, to break down how a large-scale manufacturing company builds real culture, stability, and opportunity across multiple locations from Richmond, Indiana to facilities across the country and even the UK. Sponsored by Manpower Eastern Indiana, this conversation pulls back the curtain on what workforce strategy really looks like in today’s manufacturing world.

Darin shares his path from communications and television production into manufacturing HR, starting with creating training content inside a plant and learning firsthand how every department operates. That hands-on experience now shapes how he leads at the executive level, supporting HR teams across locations while keeping hiring, leadership development, and employee benefits aligned company-wide.

We also get into what sets Primex apart in the Richmond and Eastern Indiana market. From long employee tenure and internal promotions to strong benefits and a second-chance mindset, Darin explains how companies can create environments where people actually grow. He also dives into how business diversity supports long-term stability and how recycling and material buy-back programs play a role in modern manufacturing.

Learn more about Manpower Eastern Indiana at mprichmond.com.

Follow The Hub on YouTube and Instagram @thehub_pod for more conversations with the leaders building stronger companies and communities, and share this episode with someone who cares about business, leadership, and growth.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Behind every growing business is a team of great people. This is the Hub Podcast sponsored by Manpower Eastern Indiana. I'm your host, Michael Allen. Each episode we connect with the people helping build stronger companies and communities across eastern Indiana. So welcome to the hub. And today's guest is Darren Dubbs. He is director of human resources and a member of the executive team at Primex Plastics, whose corporate headquarters is here in Richmond, Indiana. So, Darren, welcome to the hub. I appreciate you having me. Yeah, thanks for coming. So I want to I want to talk about Primex Plastics quite a bit, but there are some things I want to kind of talk to you first. So a little bit about yourself. So kind of what what are your roots? Kind of where did you grow up? I don't think you're from Richmond. I know that.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Correct. So I live across the border in Ohio, a little town called New Madison. Was born there and raised there, moved away to college and came back after college and been there basically my whole life.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Yeah. So where'd you go to college at? Anderson University. Anderson? Yep. I remember uh my son Sam and I went up and looked at Anderson. That was one of the schools that he's a nice. It's a nice university. It is nice, very nice. And uh so uh when you went to Anderson, what what were you thinking about as far as your field of study at that time?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Well, like most 18-year-olds, I was a little undecided. Um went to Anderson and went in the field of communications. Okay. And actually, I went to Anderson because I wanted to play basketball. All right. And then decided not to play when I got there. Um went into communications, and so my degree is in communications with a specialization in television production.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah. So interesting to get to HR from there, but that's that's how it all gets started.

Early Jobs And Career Pivot

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I felt like my other son, Peter, when he was trying to decide about what to do as far as a degree, I encouraged him to do communications actually, because I felt like it was a degree that had a could really take it in a lot of different directions. And if you could speak well and write well and and uh learn different communication skills, which sometimes I'm lacking of, uh like I think you can take, I mean, it can it can help you a lot in a lot of different careers. Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. So how did uh well, let me go back on this. One thing that we like to ask uh everyone that comes on the podcast is like, what was your very first job? Do you remember? Like, were they you they took taxes out of your check or whatever?

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Uh so my very first job was in construction. All right. Uh in the little town that I live in. There was a guy that did some general construction, and I worked with him and learned that trade. That was through high school, and I did that through college as well. That was the first W-2 job I had.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

So is that something that you kind of that's an area in my life I felt like I wish I could have learned a lot more when I was younger. Didn't really have the opportunity, but you know, I I really appreciate the fact that you know, when you can do those kind of things for yourself, yeah. Are you kind of a handyman at home? Do you fix a lot of things? Unfortunately, yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Whether you want to or it was it was a great experience, but it was also a little bit detrimental because now my wife knows that I know how to do things a lot more projects.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

So, what kind of projects did you work on when you're working for this person?

SPEAKER_01 3:37

We built homes or remodeled homes. Uh, did just some general like roofing jobs or siding jobs and laid tile and a little bit of everything. So I didn't do any electrical work and didn't do any plumbing work, but other than that, we did about everything.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Do you remember what he what you got paid when you first started? Five dollars an hour. Five bucks an hour, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

And that was pretty good then. Yeah, because I'm pretty open. Five dollars an hour.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

So you've made a uh a pretty long career in HR. And uh what kind of got you in that direction? Was it right out of college or was it something that you kind of transitioned to?

SPEAKER_01 4:22

It was right out of college, but I transitioned to it as well. So if that makes sense. So I said my degree was in television production. Um out of college, I got a job at Ford in Connorsville and was working in the training department producing training videos. Okay. Which was a part of HR. So from that standpoint, I was employed by Ford and wanted to do more and kind of went through some different steps within the HR group and got some additional education in HR, and that's what landed me in HR.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

What format did you uh record your training videos on at that time?

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Um, it was it was beta. Okay. Yeah, but beta was different than the beta you get at home. Uh-huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

So did you do all the editing and all that stuff? Absolutely. Yeah. Did you enjoy that? I did.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Yeah. I did. You can learn a lot. So that's how I learned about manufacturing. Okay. Is because I made training videos in every department in that facility. And I can tell you anything you want to know about building air conditioning components or radiators.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Yeah. Yeah. I remember uh, you know, my dad, even before you know, I was working in the business, he would got the big recorder, he had it up on your on your shoulder and tried to do some training videos or just to try to show people if we send them out on the job, what they might encounter. Right, right. That's the same kind of thing that we've got. And it was really kind of a a neat way to to give people an idea of the jobs they might do and whether or not they would even want to do it or not. Right. So so I I know that I think you went um because we've known each other, you know, through through business relations over the years. And I think you went from uh Ford or Vistion, I don't know what it was called at the time you left.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

It it changed in the middle. It was Vestion when I left.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

And uh you went to NSK. Correct. Yeah. And what what were your HR functions at Vistion when you left? So you had been there. I don't know how many years that you were there.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

I was there approximately 10 years. Okay. And uh at the end, I was the supervisor of labor relations. All right. And I took the job at at NSK as HR manager of the Liberty facility.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Did you feel like that was an opportunity for you to kind of grow in the field or were you doing some of the same things?

SPEAKER_01 6:55

It was an opportunity to grow in a field. I had overall responsibility for HR as opposed to just labor relations.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

So when you say labor relations, did that involve working with the union? Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yep. And I don't So basically grievances, disciplines. Um that was that was the most of my day was grievances and disciplines.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Were you so you weren't part of like uh contract negotiations and that's a good thing? Yes, absolutely. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

All right. That was every four years.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

And uh Then you went to NSK and I and you were there for a while.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

I was there for eight years, 2001 to 2008.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

So what what happened? Did was there just a job available at Primex, or did somebody kind of tap you on the shoulder and said, Hey, we got something going on? We got a position over here, or I mean no, nobody tapped me on the shoulder.

From Automotive HR To Primex

SPEAKER_01 7:52

There was um, I was kind of in a position at at NSK. I said I lived here all my life. I didn't really want to relocate. And I had some opportunities to go. They were headquartered in Ann Arbor. And as a buckeye, you don't want to be in Ann Arbor. No. Uh and I didn't really want to relocate anyway. So the big thing is I kind of wanted out of automotive. Um, I was in automotive at Ford, Bistion, obviously, and then NSK in the Americas was basically automotive suppliers. And automotive goes up and down, and I kind of wanted out of that a little bit. So I just kind of started passively looking, found the opportunity at Primex that on paper was the opportunity that that fit my my search criteria, so to speak. It was the uh position, it was the head of HR um for multiple sites, and went through the process and was fortunate enough to to land there.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

So Pistion was a union facility. Correct. And then you went to NSK, which is Japanese.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

And then you came to Primex, which is neither one of those. Correct. So I mean, you you really brought quite a breadth of experience from all kinds of different types of facilities. I'm sure, I mean, looking back now, I think that was pretty valuable.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Yeah, I think it was too. I think um working in a union environment versus a Japanese environment are two total extremes, and Primex was kind of somewhere in the middle.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

So is your role different today as we sit here than it was when you first came on board? Or how has it been?

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Yeah, I would say it's different today. When I first came on the board or on board, it was more boots on the ground. Um the HR department at the time was not very established, I'd say. So I had to kind of establish the department before I could go into what I really wanted to do was you know, more strategic planning and and leading as opposed to to doing.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

So I believe is your current role. I mean, you are because you're part of the executive team. Correct. And so uh you have uh Primex has we're you're in six states and you still have a location in the United Kingdom. Correct. So you're oh you're over HR of all those. Correct. And uh so in each site, I assume has a team. Uh now Richmond is is your corporate headquarters, so you might have additional HR team in Richmond than you would at the other side of that true.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

So each each facility, our facilities range from 40 total employees to 150 to 200 employees outside of Richmond. So each of those facilities has one HR generalist um at that facility. Then the corporate office has a handful of support functions as well. So I think there's a total of 14 in our in our department.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

And you have once you get to kind of you all kind of get together, don't you, as a team occasionally? I think I at least once a year. Yeah, I I talk to um once a year in person. We get together monthly on a Teams call, but once a year we get together for an annual meeting with uh entire I spoke to uh May, who's in one of your and she was one time she was talking about she was getting ready to go to a a meeting that y'all were gonna have.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Yeah, we do that once a year.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

So uh you probably I know well I it's not a question. I know you travel some. Yeah, quite a bit. Yeah. So uh do you tend to you hit all the locations every year, or is there some you're at more than others?

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Depends on what's going on at the location, but I try to hit every every location quarterly. Okay. So I'm at at each location. Some doesn't always work that way. I mean, there's sometimes I'm at, you know, I only make it twice a year or three times a year to a location, but I might be at another location five or six times that year, depending on what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

How often do you go to the UK?

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Not very often. Uh, usually do that through Teams or communication through telephone or whatever, but I've only been over there twice.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

How different is it dealing with HR issues in another country vers that country specifically versus here in the States? Much different or not?

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Yeah, the laws are different. Um we don't have a whole lot of HR type issues over there. Um they're pretty self self-sustainable. Um so I don't have a lot of dealings with the UK, but I do occasionally. Once in a while.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

So uh you know, you take just the six sites, and if you were there two times, well say the five outside of uh of Richmond, yeah. That's still ten trips right there. Right. Yeah. So you're going at least once or twice a month. Correct. So correct.

Leading HR Across Multiple Sites

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Seems like I go through spurts. Yeah. I'll be I'll have a month where I'm gone about every week and then I'll be home for three weeks.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

I'm sure it's based upon just stuff that's going on. Correct. Correct. So getting a little bit deeper into Primex, uh I mean, you've been there how many years now?

SPEAKER_01 13:35

It'll be 18 in November.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

I can't believe you've been there that long.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

I know, it's crazy.

Primex History And Business Lines

SPEAKER_02 13:39

I mean, I can remember being over at NSK sitting in your office talking to you. Seems like yesterday, right? Doesn't seem like it was almost two decades. Right. Right. That is it's just funny how time flies. It sure does. So kind of tell our audience a little bit of uh what you can tell. I mean, there's about kind of the history of Primex, if you're comfortable with that. Sure. Yeah, just a little bit about the company.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

So last year in 2025, we we celebrated our 60th anniversary. Yep. So we were founded in 1960 by a gentleman by the name of Dr. John Farber. Okay. Uh, he's been very involved in our business his entire life. He unfortunately passed away two years ago at the age of 98. Yeah. And he was still fairly active up until you know his last years.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Yeah. So he started our business, started Primex in New Jersey with uh a little facility that had three lines. And from there we continued to grow through mostly through expansion. We had a couple acquisitions in there that we we bought other extruders, but most of it was just through expansion. Um purchased a place in California that we ultimately moved that to Mesquite, Nevada. Um purchased a place in Oakwood, Georgia, um which we're still operating today in that facility. And of course, New Jersey is still we're in a different facility now, but but still operating out of New Jersey. And I would say it was in the 80s that we came to Richmond. Okay. And ultimately wanted to we were looking for a place to to have our headquarters more centrally located than the East Coast. Right. Uh Paul Birch was the president at the time and he had ties to Richmond, and he came back here and suggested that we move the headquarters to Richmond, and that's how we ended up here in Richmond. Uh since then, we acquired a company called Pace Industries out of Reedsburg, Wisconsin. And they became a a part of Primex at that time. That was in the 90s. Okay. Uh so that basically makes up our our five sheet facilities.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Tennessee. We have did you mention Tennessee? I haven't yet.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Okay. Uh we have well we have uh we have three divisions. Our largest division is our sheet division. And obviously we're headquartered here in Richmond, and we have manufacturing facilities of sheet in Richmond. And then we have Reedsburg, Wisconsin, Mesquite, Nevada, Oakwood, Georgia, and Garfield, New Jersey as sheet manufacturers. We have a second division, which is color compounds and additives. And one of those locations is in Garfield. It's on the same campus, actually, as our as our um sheet facility in Garfield, New Jersey. And then we have a facility in Jasper, Tennessee. That is a color and compounding facility. And then the third division is design and fabrication, which a lot of people are aware of here because they take some of the sheet that we produce and they make signage and and do like protective packaging and so forth at that facility, which is located out on industrial parkway.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

I think that's industrial parkway, yeah. And their their product is I equate to some of the stuff I've seen there. It's like corrugated plastic. Is that true? I mean, is that fair? It is. It's like it looks like cardboard, but it's plastic. Some of some of the stuff is, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yep. And that's what they do. They take, you know, they they might get a job that replaces cardboard with plastic uh for durability reasons and so forth. They also have printing capabilities there. So a lot of people know Primex in the community from signs that they see, and you know, we donate a lot of that material that's that's manufactured, the sheets manufactured at our sheet facility on North F Street, and then the design and fabrication group uses that structured sheet uh to for printing purposes or protective packaging.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

That at one time that I call it PDF. Yes, that's what we call it as well. It's um it used to be called Woodruff. Correct. It was it was still part of Primex when it was called Woodruff, correct? Okay, yeah. But you just changed the name.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

I think it was 2016 or 17 that the color division we had was was called O'Neill Color and Compounding. Um so we switched and branded everything together as Primex. So we had Primex color compounding additives, Primex design and fabrication, and then Primex sheet.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

The uh um I took this from your website, but it says Primex is one of the largest custom sheet extruders in the United States. Correct. And you specialize in a wide selection of product families that serve a wide variety of markets and industries. And you have this section on your website that talks about all the different industries that you're involved with. And I've I found now it might be minutely in some areas, but but I was pretty astounded. The list is like 18 long.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

It's it's like even like aerospace, agriculture. I won't go through all of them, but um even healthcare and medical. Um I saw toys, um, different uh things associated with uh recreation. Um I've seen some of stuff like retail and pointed purchase displays. I think I see is some of that done at PDF? Yes. Yeah. And um I think you even make the plastics products that like porta potties are made made out of. You know, I see those. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

I mean it's I tell people we do everything from drink cuplets or small clamshell food packaging to spas.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Anything in between.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Yeah, it's it's pretty amazing if you know go to go to Primexplastics.com and you see a lot of kind of interest site tells you quite a bit. Um I was gonna ask you. Um well, I'm gonna go out of order of my notes, but um your president is Mike Kramer. Yes, and Mike's been um president since 2000?

SPEAKER_01 20:29

2000 or 2001.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Yeah. And before that, I mean he started with at New Jersey. I think he's from New Jersey. No, he's from here. Okay, from here, but from here. But he worked in New Jersey and uh I think it's 1977, kind of when you started the company, and and uh so I mean he's he's coming up on like almost 50 years.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

He celebrated 49 years in January this year.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Yeah, I mean, so pretty lucky to have uh you know someone leading a couple of that kind of longevity. It could be great.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

And so I I don't know what so he had a relationship with Paul Birch, who was our president at the time, and and he Paul offered him to come out to New Jersey and and work. And he started at the bottom and worked himself to where he is today as president of Primax in 2000 or two or 2000 or 2001, um, and has been president ever since. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

So uh I'll leave that to him to decide what his next move is, but he you know, maybe he's waiting for 50 years. He might be, I don't know. I mean, it'd be a nice uh you know, just a point, at least to get. I mean, if you have 49, you might as well go fixed. You might as well get fixed.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

You know, so I keep telling him he needs to stick around until I retire.

What Primex Makes And Serves

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Yeah, there you go. The uh one thing I want to mention about um about Primex is you know, Primex is a very uh Given giving company. You do a lot in the community. I don't know how much uh you get credit for it, but it if there's all kinds of stuff going on in town and you almost always see uh Primex name associated. So I I just you know I think um maybe maybe they do realize it, but I mean that's a big part of the culture, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Yeah, and I appreciate you recognizing that because that's that's you know part of our overall strategy is to brand ourselves in the community, um, not from the standpoint of just getting recognition, but obviously we want to we want to participate in the community. Um I just had this conversation yesterday. If you look at, if you look at our like mission statement, it talks about you know five key stakeholders. And community is one of those. I mean, obviously it's our employees, our customers, our suppliers, our community, and then our our shareholders. And we didn't write that just to be writing it. I mean, we we really want to be involved in the community and want to we want to brand ourselves in the community as well.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

I think uh and I think Mike's a big big driving force behind that. I mean, I think I know he gets asked a lot, yes, and it seems like he always comes through and and tries to help when he comes to the case. He does. I mean he does. It's hard to say yes to everything, but boy, from my perspective, it seems like you guys say yes to everything. So don't be calling them now. Ask for more money.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

But we don't say yes to everything.

Careers Benefits And Second Chances

SPEAKER_02 23:32

But you do a lot. We do a lot. The company does a lot, and uh being a lifelong resident of this community, I appreciate companies like Primex who are you're totally invested on a high level. Uh one thing I wanted to talk to you about. I mean, we talked about all, I mean, Primex is has their hands on a lot of different industries and that they support with your products. Um but you know, we're kind of here in you know eastern Indiana, uh, as far as your uh different facilities here. I I thought it'd be a good chance maybe just talk about just the opportunities that are here in this area. I mean, I'm I know it's uh you can go to Mesquite or New New Jersey or I mean all these other places, but most of our um most of our followers, people that listen are it's kind of regional this area. So I just thought maybe we could talk a little bit about you know the opportunities that exist at Primex and and and why it's why it's a a good company to get a become a part of if if you have the opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah. So I want to talk a little bit about a couple different things when it comes to opportunities. One of the one of the advantages, I think, of of Primex, and it kind of speaks for itself, is the fact that we have a lot of longevity. We have a lot of people that join the organization and retire from the organization. So we have a lot of tenure in the employees that we have. So we're reaching a point in time where that's becoming somewhat of a problem because people are reaching the age of retirement. Yeah. So I think it says something for the company that we have a lot of longevity. That means, you know, people don't stick around places that's not a good place to be. Right. And but we're reaching that point where, you know, for through the first several years that I that I was with Primex, we didn't lose individuals, you know, from a from a professional standpoint as far as hiring professionals. So we're we're seeing more opportunities from a professional standpoint than what we have in the past. And those are jobs in accounting or some in HR, some in um management positions and so forth. Uh, but from uh from a operations standpoint, uh, you know, we're always looking for individuals that that want to go out and work on the production floor. Um, typically those individuals start as an assistant operator or a grinder that's grinding up the re the regrind or the recyclable material that we have, and they work themselves through to operators and and blenders and so forth. Um so those are the opportunities that we have, you know, across the board. Um you know, we also have our own fleet of trucks, so we have trucking opportunities as well. Uh and those are becoming more difficult to to fill.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Why do you think it's tough finding CDL drivers? I mean, that can go out and I mean what's what's the I mean I I think the compensation's pretty decent. Yeah, the compensation is very good. Is it just a travel part of it, you think people gone?

SPEAKER_01 26:58

I mean, I just think the and actually, you know, one of the advantages of our truck drivers are they're home every weekend. Um typically they'll they'll do some runs during the week and they basically can I'm not gonna say pick and choose what runs they have because you have certain people that that can just consistently do longer runs or or what have you, but they're home every weekend. They're usually home one or two nights a week. So it's not something that they're leaving and and gone for three weeks. Right. Um, so that's ad an advantage to us from hiring a CDL. I just think there's less available than what there have been in the past. Don't know the reason behind that, but it's it's it's been difficult to fill some of those roles.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Just watching these these guys and gals try to back up these things and loading docks would be enough to scare me away. But they do it like it's nothing. But I mean it it's I guess that's the one thing that I see when I'm out at different companies and seeing because everyone's using has trucks coming in and out of their facilities. Right. And just backing these things up to the loading docks to me is amazing, especially sometimes where your facility might be in a because you've repurposed a lot of buildings here in town that were weren't built originally by Primex. Correct. You bought them and transitioned them to your needs. And so sometimes those weren't maybe ideal loading dock locations. Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

You know, so well, and if you look at F Street, you have S Street, and they're trying to back those trucks from F Street back into the loading docks, which is we have some turnarounds, you know, where they can pull into to back up, but it's not the easiest place to do that.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

Are all those buildings ones that were something previously, or was or I mean, maybe there's been some additions or whatever, but you know, your your setup on F Street's kind of unique because you have multiple buildings because you it's like takes up.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Yeah, they were all something else before. We've I mean we've added on, obviously, but um yeah, they they were all something else before we before we came in there.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Yeah, yeah. Um yeah, it's uh I mean w we've had the opportunity, uh Manpower to get to partner with Primex and help with these entry-level positions. And it's uh it's a in this community it is a challenge, I think, from entry-level manufacturing, because we don't we don't have a lot of like population growth. Right. And uh so just the maybe you got people who are becoming old enough to enter the workforce, and you got those people, but then you've got people who are transitioned from other jobs and and maybe them leaving those jobs maybe weren't the best scenario, and you kind of happen to take a chance. I mean, uh I would say Primex is better than most is trying to give people opportunities, even if there's like a second, it's it's not always a second chance, but I think there's I feel that way. I I 100% agree.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

We're I mean, I'm gonna expand a little bit on that, but we are a second chance company, we give people opportunities. Um even former employees, we give opportunities to come back oftentimes. Um but the other thing from an opportunity standpoint is we promote from within a lot. And, you know, talking about the number of people that we have right now that are nearing retirement or at retirement and retired in the last few years. At Christmas, doing like year-in presentations, I had figured up in the last two years that that we have promoted over 50 people. And those promotions aren't somebody going, that doesn't include somebody going from an assistant operator to an operator or an operator C to an operator B. Those are those are positions that were promoted to a supervisor, um, inside sales level and above. You know, so that's you know, if you do the math, that's almost 5% of our population has been promoted within the last two years into a leadership or professional type type position. And if you added all the ones that were promoted internally, uh, which I just don't have that number, but it's a lot. It's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

Well, I mean, you there are some really I mean, just take uh Jeff Longworth. I mean, I think he started out like on a line.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Uh no, I felt like he I No, we hired Jeff. We hired Jeff um from the outside. All right. But the the other general managers that we have, the the general managers that we have and all the other facilities have started out on a line.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

I guess I just misunderstood his story because I was just talking to him once.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

He he did start out online before he came to Prime X.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

I think that's the context maybe. But you know, um uh he's a great guy. I've enjoyed, you know, working with him and communicating with him. And you really have a great team here in Richmond. Your HR team is. I agree and I appreciate that. And uh and another thing just to hit on, I don't forget about it, is I Primex does have a a very strong benefit package.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

And uh so I I hope people understand the the value of benefit packages and health insurance and stuff, but sometimes I wonder a little bit, you know, about they don't until they need it. Yeah, right. You know, but um everything that I've seen in your paperwork, whatever that um you're as competitive as anybody in that field. And I know Lisa Dollar always wants to make sure, make sure you tell people about our benefits, you know.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

So yeah, I mean I think our our benefits package is is pretty competitive. We we pride ourselves on giving people options. So, you know, somebody can can take a you know, a lesser valued, which they pay less out of their pocket for, um, in case something goes wrong, or you can get more of a a gold package or an elite package is what we call them.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

So how many people uh counting um PDF, F Street, recycling operation, and the corporate offices, how many in like Wayne County and more in Richmond or how many employees is that up to approximately?

SPEAKER_01 33:49

I should know that number exactly, but I don't off the top of my head. But I'm gonna say in the in the range of 550.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

Yeah. Well, you take 550 times the average salary of all those people, and Primex is interjecting a lot into the economy. Absolutely. Think of think about all of those monies being earned. And I think a lot of your people live here. Do you have many commuters at all? Maybe in upper management, maybe a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

No. Um, all of our senior leadership lives in the Richmond area, I'll say. Um, and the majority of our employees do as well. I mean, we have some commuting, you know, from across the line, like myself and New Paris or New Madison or or what have you. But all of our senior leadership lives here in Richmond, and uh the majority of our employees live in Wayne County.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Because I've seen uh at other companies, which we we really think for the community want we want um people to be living at least regionally around here. But there are people that I've seen in in different roles that are driving all the way from Dayton, Cincinnati, Indianapolis. And so they just come here, worked, and they go, and they're not really connected to the community. I mean, you live over where you do, but I mean you're pretty close to the area and you're and you're um uh very involved in in the community and in the area. So but if you're like driving an hour and a half each way every day, it's just kind of hard to be connected. Yeah, and right and it's I think all in all it's better if if your employees can be associated with the community that they're in. I mean it's it's not to be all of the at all, but we make it a requirement.

Culture Stability And Sustainability Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_01 35:48

We make it a requirement for our our our senior management to live either in or near the community. Yeah, yeah. And we recruited, you know, uh Case Bros, who who we joined our organization three years ago uh when Tim Schultz retired. And you know, he he first thought about you know living near Indianapolis because he is used to a larger city and so forth. And you know, we we strongly encourage those individuals, and he he is now, he's he's part of our community here and just built a new home. And so we make that a requirement for our senior leadership and if we're hiring from the outside to live in the community.

SPEAKER_02 36:31

If there's uh and we maybe you've already mentioned it or we talked about it, but if if there's a one or two things you really would like people to know about your company that you think they may not know or it's important for them to know, what what do you think that should be?

SPEAKER_01 36:51

I think first first off is that and this is very difficult to explain, but we have what I consider to be a very good culture. We really believe, like I said, we had those those five pillars of our mission statement, and we really believe in our employees. Um and it's not just something on paper, we practice it every day. So I think that's one thing is just the overall culture of of the organization. I think a second thing is the fact that we we've been able to offer a lot of stability. In the 18 years that I've been there, we've not come close to a layoff um in in any of our facilities. And I I think if you go back further than that, you won't find any layoffs either. So it's a company that you know, we we employ the number of people that we need, and you know, we don't hire a bunch and then lay off a bunch, you know. We we do supplement, obviously, with with temp to hires um that you're very familiar with. Yeah. Um, but we we offer stability and in today's world, you don't see that a lot. And I think that's that's huge. So going back to the the longevity of our employees, the reason we have longevity is because we offer that stability and we offer the right kind of culture that that people like from a work standpoint.

SPEAKER_02 38:26

You're you know, you're when you go out and you're you got salespeople out there trying to get clients, and you know, it it sounds like you've got to because you talked about at Ford Vistian NSK that it's automotive and automotive runs in cycles. Right. I mean, it's not consistent throughout the year, but I guess part of what early in our conversation what you want to get into was a was a company or industry that didn't have that. Correct. And so it sounds like you know, part of that stability is your ability to go out and get clients that aren't going to give you a big spikes that have a consistent need for your for your product that you make for them.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Yeah, the the the end customer, because again, we we supply a flat sheet or a roll of of sheet to a company that actually forms something out of that sheet that then goes to an end customer. Um so the end customers is very, very diverse, which makes which makes it very and again, they're in a lot of different industries. So you you read some of them off earlier, whether it's the automotive industry, which we do supply some to, the RV industry we supply some to, uh, recreation, agriculture. So typically not all of those are going to be in the same cycle. So it allows us to to have a nice baseline where we're not fluctuating a whole lot um from year to year based upon what the economy's doing and so forth.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Probably the well, not probably for a fact. The the operation I've seen the most is the recycling operation where you're bringing in plastic, you're grinding it, you're blending it, then you're repelletizing it. Correct. That's the right term. Yep. And uh how much how much do you do that at other sites?

SPEAKER_01 40:23

Other to a to a small degree. So we we don't know, we don't always pelletize at other facilities. But when you when you produce a plastic sheet or a roll, you can't make it the exact width that you're trying to make it. So basically you make it a little bit wider and and there's trim scrap that's cut off of it that goes all of that goes into a grinder and is recycled back into the product. So you don't have waste from that standpoint. The Richmond facility is we do a little bit in Georgia, but the Richmond facility is the the one facility that has a full recycling center.

SPEAKER_02 41:03

Yeah, I wasn't sure how much of all the product that you use to make your your sheet is just that you recycled yourself. I don't know what percentage that maybe you don't even know, but it's I I I'm curious. I'm just was wondering because there's a lot that runs through that facility. You probably use way more than that.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

Now the the Richmond Recycling Facility provides raw material back to the other facilities as well, not just Richmond.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

Okay.

unknown 41:32

All right.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Yeah. So they they provide uh uh regrind pelletized material back to the other facilities that's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

Now obviously it's I guess it's a cost-effective way, you know, then buying it somewhere else. Right.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

You know, if you're able to find an effective way to to recycle it and make your own pellet and just put it right back into the extruders, I'm sure that's so one of the other things that we that we do is when when the customer uses what they need of a sheet, there's always some scrap left. You know, they can't I always envision as making cookies and you stamp out all your dough and you have holes, and when you're making cookies, you roll it back up and roll it out and do it again. And so our customers when we buy back that material from them, obviously at a lower cost, right? But we buy back that material and then we send that to our recycling center and recycle that as well. So there's from a sustainability standpoint, there's a lot of of recycled material that we use.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

So do you do you have stuff that comes as far as Mesquite or New Jersey back to Richmond to be recycled?

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Depends on where the customers are located, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

Yeah, it's interesting.

unknown 42:48

All right.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

Well, I've I've kind of covered everything on my notes. Umless there's anything else that you thought think that you'd want to share about Primex and you think interesting, but we've talked about a lot.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

No, we have talked about a lot. And again, I just can't emphasize enough that that you know, we are a company that gives people second chances, we give people opportunities to grow, we promote from within, and we take care of our people.

Closing And Contact Manpower

SPEAKER_02 43:19

Yeah. Well, it's it's a pleasure working with you all, and uh, I really appreciate you taking the time to be with us today. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Great. Thanks for listening to the Hub Podcast sponsored by Manpower Eastern Indiana. If your business needs great people or you're looking for your next opportunity, contact Manpower Eastern Indiana today.