PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2015

MOULD MAKING 18 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 10/15 www.petpla.net The legacy of a visionary figurehead lives on by Kay Barton June 23, 2015 - We met: Mr Todd Riley, CEO, Mr Tim White, CFO, Mr Robert Schiavone, Global Marketing Director, Mr Chris Lavery, Manufacturing General Manager and Mr Dave A. Brunson, VP Engineering To be able to maintain its position on the international mould-making front, the sector has, for some time now, been pursuing a policy involving more than focusing purely on the manufacture of high quality products. In fact, inten- sive customer care is playing a greater role than ever, both before and after delivery and this has given the company a distinctive edge over their competitors. But why not take things a stage further? For example, by providing support for the entire complex process beginning with product pack- aging right up to the stage where the product is ready to be launched on the market. This is not the end of the story; why not also collaborate with the customer in jointly devel- oping the product? R&D/Leverage, based in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, not far from Kansas City, aim to do precisely this as an all-round supplier of turnkey solutions where every section of the company “live” the idea enthusias- tically. With an initial focus on the mould-making activities, we meet up with company managers in order to discover exactly what it is that makes the difference. Everything began with Ivan Drienik, whose story is the epitome of the American Dream. In 1958, at the age of 16 or 17 (nobody seems to know for certain) Ivan, an orphan, arrived in New York City as an immi- grant from the former Czechoslovakia and got a dishwashing job in a Czech restaurant. In the course of time Ivan undertook a course of training, learned English and, in acknowledge- ment of his performance in military service, was subsequently granted American citizenship. His plan to settle in California was torpedoed when his vehicle broke down in Mis- souri as he was heading west and Ivan found himself marooned in Lee’s Summit, which is where he stayed. In 1976 he set up a small job- bing shop there going by the name of “R&D Tool and Engineering“ serving the toolmaking and mould-making industry. Two years later Ivan and his wife Ardith Drienik purchased a plot of land and launched the company from a 920m 2 building. The 1980s saw an increase in the fields of activity cov- ered by the plastics sector and R&D/ Leverage became manufacturers of customer-specific moulds in the injec- tion, injection stretch blow and injec- tion blow moulding sectors. The order book grew and in 1995 the Drieniks took over DK Mould in Sutton in Ashfield, UK, as a subsidi- ary of R&D, thus gaining a foothold in the European market. This branch has since grown to such an extent that it now covers a production area of around 3,000m 2 . The “Leverage Brand” also came into being in 2006