Business View Magazine
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who make pipes aren’t making medical stuff and the
ones making cores aren’t making pipes.”
Teel differentiates itself from others by taking on
things that are difficult to do. “If it’s something you can
get from a dozen other extrusion companies, or you’re
looking for us to be the fifth or sixth person to submit
an RFQ, that’s not necessarily the opportunity we want
to be looking at. If you’ve got something where, either
you’ve tried and failed, or you haven’t found another
company to do it successfully, that’s the area we want
to be in. We do a lot of co-development with our cus-
tomers; listening to them to bring more intelligence to
the product, then bringing our capabilities to bear on
what they’re trying to do.”
Partnering for Prosperity
A wise philosophy of partnering with customers and
suppliers drives continuous improvement throughout
the company. Establishing closer relationships with
large resin supply businesses is a key effort, right now.
Rather than just getting quotes for materials, Teel
wants to run new, experimental materials for them,
help with development, and launch some new prod-
ucts. “Tell them we’re not afraid of running the stuff
that’s difficult to run, or that they lack the qualifica-
tions to handle. These are the opportunities we want,
and have had a lot of success with, recently.”
Each year, Teel Plastics creates a strategic map set-
ting out its main priorities for the next 12 months. This
