Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Open Board of Directors Meeting
San Bernardino Community College District
114 S. Del Rosa Drive
San Bernardino, CA 92408
Minutes
Present: Deborah Barmack, Peter Barmack, Carole Beswick, Tom Brickley, Ken Coate, Scott Davis, Scott Hofferber, Matthew Isaac, Erik Johnson, Mark Kaenel, Sue McKee, Dan Murphy, John Prentice, Kristine Scott, and Phil Waller.
Announcements: 1) Both CSUSB and URC received additional funding from the State budget. 2) It appears that ten new judgeships will be funded in the new budget. San Bernardino, Riverside and Kern counties are expected to receive the first positions as they have experienced the most cuts and score high on the Work Load formula. 3) Members of Inland Action met with CalCIMA last week and discussed their participation in the Express Lane Coalition. 4) Inland Action will follow and review new legislation regarding Port Transparency Act which is now in the Senate.
M/S/P: Minutes from June 2, 2015
Peter Barmack introduced Nick Grooters, Director of International Sales, Pacer Technology-The Original Super Glue
Pacer Technology has evolved from producing hobby airplane kits in the 1970’s to a worldwide leader in the manufacturer and supply of high performance glues, adhesives and epoxies sold to consumer, hobby, automotive and industrial customers.
Pacer covers five key areas of retailing: discounting chains, drug chains, supermarket chains, hardware and home centers, and hobby and craft outlets. They also maintain licensing agreements to produce products ‘behind the scenes’ for other brand names. Pacer’s products are sold in 75,000 U.S. retail outlets including Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, The Home Depot, Walgreens, and Eckerd. In addition to their most famous line, Super Glue they also produce a variety of other bonding products including brands such as Locktight, Zap and Bondini. Approximately half of their business carries private labels. Examples include cosmetic companies offering nail glue such as Revlon and OPI.
Critical to their products, the company has put much thought and effort into the packaging of its adhesives. They now produce their own bottles, caps and tips for many of which they hold the patents.
The company, based in Rancho Cucamonga, exports to 64 countries. Some 20% of Pacer’s sales are overseas and this market share is growing. They have a Regulatory Department and Art Department that address the requirements specific to each country regarding instructions, labeling and packaging of the product. Pacer understands the huge international sales advantage of being able to label “Made in the U.S.A.” on their products and uses the American flag on displays to promote their products at international trade shows, etc.
Unfortunately chemical manufacturing in California has become increasingly burdensome and costly leading them to seek alternatives to stay competitive. Rather than completely leaving the state they opted to move their production operations to Tijuana, Mexico where they now operate a Maquiladora. A Maquiladora is a manufacturing operation in a free trade zone where factories import material and equipment on a duty-free basis for assembly, processing or manufacturing and then export the products back to the country of origin. This move has allowed them to combine three production locations to one larger central facility, streamlining their processing. Their Maquiladora facility is currently at 85% capacity and they employ 100 workers. Product contents continue to be made in the U.S.A. assuring customers the quality they expect from a U.S. manufacturer. With production now in Mexico, labor costs have dramatically decreased and they are now able to do short production runs and more custom packaging without large costs. It is beneficial that Tijuana is accessible (a 2 hour drive) and they have set up live cameras where meetings can take place and they offer virtual tours of the facility. All their administrative departments (sales, regulatory, art, etc.) remain at their home office in Rancho Cucamonga where they employ some 50 people. The move to production in Mexico has allowed Pacer Technology to remain strong and increase their business.
There is a new push industry wide to move to a Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). This internationally agreed-upon system created by the United Nations is designed to replace the various classification and labeling standards used in different countries by using a consistent criteria on a global level. Pacer is staying in tune with the still evolving GHS recommendations.
A Q & A period followed.
Meeting adjourned at 8:32a.m.