sections of the marketplace. “The long-term trends in both markets
are positive, but we would be naïve not to expect some tough times ahead,” Ca- ruso said. “We’re proceeding with caution while the economy appears to be taking two steps forward and one step back. But the industrial segment is picking up. Municipal is stronger. It peaked during the summer. Industrial will be a little more temperamental, but we’ve seen growth, and we expect it to continue.” The industrial growth, Caruso said, has
been primarily in the heavy truck and agricultural markets. They’ve even seen some growth in the automotive sector. To capitalize on some of these seg-
ments, the company has slowly opened up more of the new molding line’s capacity to industrial castings. While it was initially purchased to produce entirely municipal castings, it is today split 75%/25% between municipal and non-municipal. Neenah is also work- ing to produce an increased number of ductile iron parts on the line. “We’re still refining the metal han- dling,” Headington said. When the company reorganized its
balance sheet, it also reorganized its ex- ecutive structure. In addition to installing a temporary chief executive officer (Caruso) and chief financial officer (Brent John- son, also of Huron Consulting), Neenah heightened the distinction between its two market focuses, with one head of general industrial casting sales and operations and a separate head of municipal sales and operations. “Our goal is to better align ourselves with our customers,” Caruso said.
“There’s been no change in the product mix. The idea was simply to optimize the profitability of both divisions.” Now, to cap off its emergence from bankruptcy and guide the company into the future, Neenah is engaged in a search for a permanent chief execu- tive. The existing executives said the search would be measured in months, not days. “We want the right person, not a
quick person,” Headington said. “Hav- ing someone with some experience in the C-level jobs would be good, as well as someone who fits in from a cultural standpoint. Neenah has a rich cultural history.”
What’s Growing On
According to Caruso, two growth opportunities exist in municipal casting: new home building and infrastructure work. “Eventually, we will have new build-
ings going up,” he said. “During the boom, they built too much. Now they are building too little. The entire market has growth ahead of it.” Neenah sells its municipal castings
directly to the end-user in many cases, with 25,000 customers across the na- tion. It also has retail distributors with its products in stock. Barrett said the most important considerations for winning new business in municipal markets are
Neenah adds value in a niche dominated by commodity misperceptions by maintaining extensive in-house patternmaking capabili- ties. The company uses automated pattern storage to keep track of the tooling.
20
MODERN CASTING / December 2010
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