|
By Bob Kievra, Telegram &
Gazette Staff
Worcester, MA - September 7, 2001
Worcester -
Nature could only do so much for Pobco Inc.
During the
20th century, the 71-year-old company built an international reputation with
its self-lubricating wood bearings, a hardwood product widely used in the
once-booming Central Massachusetts textile industry.
Made
of New England grown rock maple, the wooden bearings were the company's
signature product for decades, sustaining the family-owned business for three
generations.
But the advent of high technology and super
alloys made it increasingly difficult to expand the Hope Avenue business
without adding new products. It was the mid-1980s, and wooden bearings weren't
generating as much demand as metal or plastic ones.
"Our
customer base was shrinking," said Thomas G. Johnson, co-owner and marketing
manager for the 25-person company. "If we wanted to grow the company, we had to
offer more products to the industries we were already
in."
Fifteen years later, company sales have topped $5
million, and 75 percent of revenues are derived from plastic components such as
guide rails, chain guides, wear strips, bearings and
pulleys.
The transformation has been such that the company
now refers to its self-lubricating hardwood products as nature's plastics.
"We've really transformed the company in a short period of time," Mr. Johnson
said. "We do what we always have, but have expanded our product
lines."
Today, Pobco is largely unmatched in being able to
offer both plastic and hardwood conveyor components and friction-reducing
products. Pobco has more than 5,000 customers across a variety of industries,
from amusement parks to seafood companies. A Pobco product can likely be found
inside a conveyor belt at a beverage company, a ski lift atop a mountain, or on
a machine that glues boxes at a bakery.
Founded as the
Paramount Oilless Bearing Co. in 1929, Pobco bills itself as a family-oriented
company with a personal touch, small enough to help out a would-be entrepreneur
and large enough to serve a Fortune 500 company retrofitting a
factory. |
The final
destination for about 50 percent of Pobco's products is largely unknown because
they are bought by original equipment manufacturers or sold through a network
of 25 manufacturing representatives around the country, Mr. Johnson
said.
Shifting into plastics propelled Pobco's growth for
much of the past 15 years. A booming economy and machines that moved faster and
quieter fueled a demand for bearings and conveyor components such as guide
rails and wear strips, he said.
About half of Pobco's
business is customized, as Pobco engineers fashion a solution to a particular
problem, said Mr. Johnson, who owns the business with his brothers, David W.
Johnson and Stephen R. Johnson.
Pobco was founded in 1929
by Mr. Johnson's grandfather, George R. Johnson, and was run by George
Johnson's son, C. Russell Johnson, for many years. A fourth generation of
Johnsons now works in the company.
The company has never
had a layoff and has been able to ride out the current economic downturn,
Thomas Johnson said. Sales for the most recent fiscal year were flat compared
to the previous year, which is considered good considering the cutback that
most companies have made in equipment purchases, Mr. Johnson
said.
The company is bullish about its future, noting that
its products have wide applications across a variety of industries. Grapes are
harvested using products that contain Pobco parts, and potato chip bags move
along a Pobco-equipped conveyor belt, Mr. Johnson
said.
"Everyone's still eating and buying things," Mr.
Johnson said. "Unless that changes sometime soon, we'll be around for a long
time to come." |
