TRC: Driven by our 4r future vision … Repair, Reuse, Recycle, and Repurpose.
- KLS
- 13 minutes ago
- 7 min read
For the 182nd feature of our "Together Talks" campaign, we collaborated with TRC and Jonathan Goodwin, Director of Sales. TRC is driven by their 4r Vision: create and extract value from materials that were formerly considered to be at the end of their useful life. They serve the end-to-end needs of our customers who implement high-quality, environment-friendly, sustainable solutions using our products.
TRC’s 4r Vision:
Repair: When equipment or products need to be repaired to extend their lifecycle and productivity.
Reuse: To envision and engineer solutions that give a second life to products.
Recycle: Create sustainability solutions by taking products that were previously scrapped and converting them into new products.
Repurpose: Adapting or altering materials to find new uses, which creates value for our customers, and our customer's customers.
TRC has grown and diversified through acquisition and strategic investments that align with our vision. The TRC brand portfolio is:
TECH – Tire & Wheel: Represents TRC’s legacy brand known for quality and innovation all over the world for anything used to retread or repair tires from passenger cars to earth movers.
Salvadori – Recycling Products: TRC made a strategic acquisition of Salvadori, based in Rovereto Italy. Salvadori designs, engineers, manufactures and installs equipment to downsize used tires that are then converted into a wide variety of modern products.
Pang Industrial - Conveyor Repair Products: Pang Industrial is another TRC acquisition known globally for high-quality repair solutions and tools used to maintain equipment in manufacturing, mining and logistics.
AMS (Advanced Mobility Solutions): Our most recent brand features leading-edge technologies and solutions that drive actionable insights to optimize your business, no matter where you are or what you move.
"Together Talks" feature # 182: TRC presented by KLS - Your Trusted Shipping Solutions In The USA
Story of how it was created?
The company dates back to 1939. Charles Cornell invented cold vulcanization. It was a means for repairing tires. That innovation is what has launched the company. That spirit of innovation is still there. It has led us to today, I joined the company a little over a year ago. We have, no pun intended, put the rubber to the road on our group strategy. It's really about growing the organization, putting some new life into the organization, and driving the business for the next 85 years.
We had an older factory that was the American dream as we got new customers and new product lines. It would get added on to and turn into this sprawling network of little kind of cells. We saw an opportunity to bring all of our business lines, keep people under one roof. That's been the focus for the last year and a half to two years.
The growth of filling up that factory is part of the reason why I'm here, to help drive the team forward. We possess a great network of people internally, We strive to continue on that legacy of innovation and high quality products.
What separates you from your competition?
It's all about the full life cycle of rubber. Part of our vision is our four R's, that's repair, reuse, recycle, and repurpose. Each one of our product lines, whether we're talking about textile repair, paint industrial, salvatory, recycling equipment, or even our advanced mobility systems, each one of those business lines is really focused on extending the life of rubber products and keeping things out of landfills.
That's what separates us, our spirit of innovation that our founder has. After 85 years, it's still a family-owned company. We have maintained our roots here in Johnstown while still being a global organization. We really focus in on being that global company without losing sight of it still being a family business.
Another thing on our global footprint, we've got over 10,000 SKUs in 96 countries. You would not expect a global company to be located out here in Johnstown, Ohio. It's out in the rural area outside of Columbus. We are a unique organization. We really are focusing on doing what's right and making good products that work.
What have been the biggest challenges?
A lot of our business is in a very mature, competitive marketplace. We had to question how to extend life cycle of products. We challenged ourselves to do something different. We've invested in manufacturing. We're excited to be a domestic manufacturing company, even though we have global operations. We are driving the business like our one-loop strategy.
Did you have any concern with making this transition?
Our values. That is what led me to join TRC. Our values, they're more than just words on paper. That family aspect to the business, that's what excited me about joining. It goes beyond standard or typical companies. That is what makes this a great company.
Anyone who has had the opportunity to work for a large corporation, they typically talk about their values and what their mission statement is. Sometimes, It's hard to understand where you fit in that organization. But here, the team really comes together.
Honor, we've got a specific way that we refer to each one of our values. Honor, doing what we say we'll do with integrity and respect, working with honesty, dependability, accountability, innovation.
By valuing innovation, tech continues to embrace and encourage creative thinking. Our leadership, through leadership tech, find the determination to grow and improve. We'll learn from each other and lead not only within our company and our industry, but within our community. Teamwork is essential for tech's longevity. We need to collaborate and hold each other accountable. We also have fun and celebrate our accomplishments as a team. Intelligence is our key to success. With intelligence, we think critically and strategy can take the calculated risks as a company.
We come together quarterly to nominate people that have really embodied those values. It's been more than what I've seen at other organizations. I've had the opportunity to work with really large, well-known, publicly-traded companies. Sometimes those values don't come through. A lot of what we do, is about keeping tires out of landfills, giving new life to industrial belting by being able to repair it, by having automated systems that help extend the life of tires through software and hardware, and ultimately by bringing new life to things at the end of their life cycle by recycling it.
Share a decision that you made that was detrimental?
I can think of a lot of experiences where I've learned something. No decision really jumps out in my mind since I've been here. But the one thing that I have seen, that corporate culture, our values really allows us to reflect on what we're doing. Right now, it lends itself to reflecting on what can we control? What have we done well? What have we not done well? It really forced us to grow. We wouldn't be 85 years old as a company if we didn't have that continuous improvement mentality of looking at when we could have done something better and improving on it.
What is your why?
The thing that really motivates me is the values of the company really come through in everything. It really guides our company in all their decisions. It's a unique way of thinking about things. When organizations have courage to really make a big investment and do something unique, like rebuilding a factory and investing in automation and investing in capacity, it is a huge investment. I'm excited to be a part of that at TRC. I'm excited to be a part of the team that's really trying to fill that factory up and utilize that capacity.
Building the factory itself and the design plans for how we want to bring all the other business lines and business units under that one roof to really encourage collaboration and connectivity. Our people are important to our company. On the manufacturing side, it's really about injecting new manufacturing techniques into our processes. It's about opening up capacity and bringing some innovation that will lead us for the next 85 years.
What is your reach?
The spirit of innovation, trying to do what's right for our customers in the business and not losing sight that we are still family owned. That makes it unique. It's a special company to be a part of. I've worked for organizations that are large and sometimes with a small organization it can be hard to feel like you're making an impact or difference. You might not be able to tell how you're making the world a better place. Many of the tires that are on the road, whether it be commercial or passenger tires, we have products that touch those. Whether you realize it or not, if you've ever had your tire repaired, more than likely it has been done with one of our repair materials.
Most commercial vehicles, typically, those tires are either manufactured with some of the materials that we make ourselves and or the retread process itself. Some of the materials we have go into that beyond just the repairs we make. It's neat to think that our products touch many of the things that keep America running. In fact, we're a global company that we're based here in Johnstown, Ohio, and have manufacturing overseas as well as operating sites. It's really unique and part of our corporate heritage is we even had E-Star. We received an E-Star award for exporting, not just once, but twice. You wouldn't expect that, a small company here in Johnstown, Ohio, would be touching so many tires a year and so many products a year to be nominated by the U.S. government too.
Piece of Advice
Having firm principles and firm values are really important. That's what really has driven us for 85 years, and I think will drive us for the next 85 years. Not being timid in making decisive actions, like our investment and our manufacturing capabilities. Those types of decisions take values and courage. For the readers, I would say understanding what your values are and having your principles, but not wavering from them really is important.
Whether you're thinking about tough business decisions, whether they impact people or just personal, you have to have good values and good principles in order to make good decisions and be confident with them. To kind of bring it full circle, I argue we probably wouldn't have been around for 85 years plus if we didn't have really good values and attracted really good people that ultimately work together. I think that's really what this is about.
In Closing
KLS wants to thank TRC and Jonathan Goodwin, Director of Sales, for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!