PFFC - May 2008 - (Page 22)

NEWS CLIPS Rollers Make History By Deborah Donberg, Assoc. Managing Editor UNION GROVE, WI | When Dan Cahalane came to American Roller in 2005, he thought rollers were a simple commodity. As he learned about the vast amount of technology that goes into the manufacture of the products, it “blew him away.” With American Roller celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, Cahalane took a few minutes to tell PFFC a little bit about the company and its history. Founded in Chicago in 1938 by Hillard Ditzler, American Roller eventually moved to Union Grove, WI, where it now has a “campus” comprising administrative headquarters, a technical center for research and engineering, and several manufacturing facilities. It remained family owned until 2001, when it was purchased by the private equity firm CM Acquisitions. (Hillard’s son Bob remained on the board until his death in 2007.) Owners throughout the company’s history believed in growing the company. “The Ditzler family invested an awful lot in technology over the years,” says Cahalane. And, in what has been a challenging market for growth, CM has acquired another roller company as well as a plasma coating company and brought in Cahalane, Neil Hersh as VP of sales and customer service, and Dennis Gaber as director of technical services. Three-Pronged Mission Secrets. Leading converters and printers worldwide run Martin splicers. But some don’t want the competition to discover the secret of their competitive edge — Martin Automatic. That’s okay, we’re good at keeping secrets. Martin Automatic — the secret advantage. High Performance Splicing, Rewinding and Tension Control Systems w w w. m a r t i n a u t o m at i c . c o m Craig Thomson Regional Manager Martin Automatic Inc Disclaimer: No Martin personnel were seriously injured in the making of this ad. Visit us at D46, Hall 3 PFFC-ASAP 117 22 | MAY 2008 While a mission statement has been in place since his arrival, Cahalane says there are three basic things the company is trying to accomplish. One involves having the capabilities to go to customers and focus on solving their problems rather than soliciting for a particular product. Second, backing up a field sales force with an experienced, centralized customer service team. But the point emphasized by Cahalane most strongly is the company’s overall approach to the roller industry: “We are trying to bring more discipline and more process to an industry that tended to be very informal. I’m talking about both internally, in our process, and externally, in the interaction between us and the customer. A large gap in the industry is in the area of product specifications. Continued on p24 WWW.PFFC-ONLINE.COM http://www.martinautomatic.com http://WWW.PFFC-ONLINE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of PFFC - May 2008

PFFC - May 2008 Contents First Glance Calendar of Events From the Editor Web Lines Process Management News Clips Narrow Web & Label Reporter Narrow Web & Label What's New Products Labels/Sleeves Cover - European Converting Drupa New Product Digest What's New Products Services Directory Classified Marketplace Advertisers Index Experience Speaks

PFFC - May 2008

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