dec-2017

110 111 verters take the material and transform it (stamp, cut, splice), into a gasket, sealing strip or cut part. Size-wise, customers vary frommulti-national orga- nizations making $100 million-plus, to three guys in a warehouse operating in the five-million-dollar range.The largest product line for GCP is Premlene™ Sheet Rubber,where the business started,and remains the #1 seller contributing roughly50 percent of the revenue.Their National Silicone linemakes up 10 percent; RubatexSponge Rubber line 10 percent; 15 percent for SurlocHose Clamps; and 15 percent for Enlast Belting and Engineered Structures. “People don’t usually come looking for GCP,” says Gary,“instead they look online for products. Like sheet rubber, hose clamps, silicone sheet; of our 12 employees,we have two dedicated full time to marketing and one part-time.One of our customers, who is five times our size, doesn’t have that kind of devotion to marketing.We’ve put a focus on making it easy for people find our products.Whether it’s industry publications, LinkedIn, Facebook, online ads–we put the products out there with the inten- tion of selling them through our customers.All the distributors carrying our brands will be promoted on a local and national basis.” One of GCP’s brands, Rubatex used to be an $80 million business that ended up going bankrupt. GCP picked up the IP and copyright information and relaunched.The positive response they received told them that brands will work in an industrial sense, such as they do in a consumer sense,which led them to building up their in-house brands.They currently have eight brands, five out on their own. Once they get to a certain point in sales and oppor- tunities, they are spurred off the GCPmain website to a standalone site. “We have launched 5 product specific sites in the last couple of years,”Craig says.“We really wanted to strengthen our customer partnerships, so we began to leverage and promote our brands with the idea that prospective buyers could buy through them.We take on the marketing efforts, filter the requests by geography or opportunity and funnel potential sales to our customers. It’s one way we’ve been trying to get our partners more involved in our product lines. Not only can we provide themwith an array of qual- ity and new products, but now future sales as well.” GCPmade the PROFIT 500 list three out of the last four years as one of Canada’s Fastest Growing Companies–it didn’t apply in the fourth year. Rev- enue grew 10 times between 2004 and 2014, and the company established another 10 times goal at the beginning of 2015- that means 27percent growth per year.This year, it will reach 30 percent. Tremendous allies of their growth continue to be their valued partners which, of the many include, Rubberite Cypress Sponge in Santa Ana, California, General Rubber and Plastics in Evansville, Indiana, and Canada Rubber Group in Bowmanville,Ontario. To address the collective challenges for compa- nies working with China, GCP developed a program called the “Right Shoring Advantage.”Gary elabo- rates,“Nowwe can help manufacturers and inven- tors (the people who do kick-starter and Indiegogo campaigns) bring their product ideas to life. Every person who goes to China finds the same difficulty. Communication is challenging, delays are common and the Chinese environment and business policies are a constantlymoving target. GCP’s abundance of experience in China can help to navigate these variables to ensure a smooth transition from idea to commercialization. “In the future we’re going to focus on turning the knowledge we have into services.We have our product websites out there, and we’re proving that our ability to source materials is world class.Our focus is industrial products, relationships, and sourc- ing and we want to be the best at those three key categories.” GCP INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS n Echosims www.echosims.com Our agency uses our vast experience to grow great companies by taking their online marketing efforts to the next level.This includes building results-focused websites, creating campaigns to generate leads for your sales team, and targeted branding campaigns to keep you top of mind with existing customers and prospects. We start by assessing what you have already tried or are currently doing, research your competition and online mar- ket potential, then present plans to test or dive full in.Our philosophy is that we need to deliver results and transpar- ency in order for you to continue working with us. Let’s talk! n New Orleans Rubber www.neworleansrubber.com PREFERRED VENDORS