Gasket specialist RCS opens 3rd site in US

ERJ staff report (R&PN)

Santa Ana, California -- Gasket material distributor and sponge converter RCS Rubber Products Inc. has opened a third US facility primarily to serve East Coast and Midwest customers and further its objective to be a national supplier.

The company, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, now is operating out of a 162,000-sq.-ft. distribution site in Columbus, Ohio. RCS also has its headquarters facility in Santa Ana and another warehouse in Pearland, Texas, located in the Houston- Galveston area.

RCS will supply a large inventory of solid rubber sheet at the new site-including neoprene, EPDM, nitrile, silicone, fluoroelastomer and SBR-in a full range of widths, thicknesses and durometers. The company-the combination of Rubberite Corp. and Cypress Sponge Rubber Products Inc.-will maintain a bun and roll stock inventory of sponge and foam, which can be processed into sheets or rolls of any thickness on its looper-splitter equipment.

The firm also will have machinery to perform slit-to-width and cutting operations and apply pressure-sensitive adhesives to specification.

Greg Brooks, RCS owner and president, said for several years he's wanted to expand the company's capabilities and transform it from a West Coast distributor into a national single-source supplier of sheet rubber, closed and open cell sponge, cork, cord-stock and compress- ed non-asbestos sheet.

Brooks opened the Texas facility in early 2007 to begin servicing markets east of the Rocky Mountains. After two years of solid growth there and with the increase in trans- portation costs, the time was right to build the company's competitive edge by moving even further east, he said.

While the economic recession is a huge factor across the industry, RCS's revenues are ahead of last year's record pace, Brooks said. The company's leader also likes to expand when times are down.

“The more of a one-stop shop we are, the stronger our base will be,” according to Brooks.

“We want to invest in the future, increase our inventory and expand our lines now.”

RCS can grow into the Columbus facility as needed, he said. The site will employ a small number of people, including temporary workers, to start, but eventually could have about 35 employees.

The location will be run by Dave Chaney, a former manager at American National Rubber Inc. with more than 30 years of sponge conversion experience, Brooks said. “We've made the commitment and we'll be increasing inventory in the next two years. We'll grow as fast as the market lets us.”

Brooks believes the economy will turn in a positive direction-though probably slowly-before the year is out. RCS has helped itself by staying diverse with its supply markets, providing value-added services and meeting specific requirements, such as specialty volumes, he said.

“We want to go to the customer with offerings no one else does,” he said. “That's the beauty of what we can provide with the new facility. Others don't have the full package, but we have solid rubber and closed-cell sponge, plus silicone and Viton and other specialty materials. We don't think there's anyone like us.”

Rubberite was founded in 1949 in Los Angeles primarily as a wholesale distributor of imported rubber sheet and other gasket materials to West Coast customers.

Brooks has been with the company for nearly 40 years, starting as a part-time worker while in college and eventually buying an interest in the company.

In 1980, he started Cypress Sponge after seeing a need for a sponge converting distributor in the Pacific coast. Brooks, who has been the sole owner of the two companies for the past 20 years, combined them in 2006 as RCS.

From Rubber & Plastics News (A Crain publication)