26 Business View - June 2015
Measurably Better than the Rest
Strategic success from a first-class producer in the plastics industry
Teel Plastics has evolved on an impressive scale since
its early days in Baraboo, Wisconsin, where it started
out as ‘Insemikit’ – a manufacturer of glass tubes used
in the artificial insemination of dairy cattle and poultry.
Founded in 1951, by W. F. “Pete” Teelin, and currently
owned by the Jay L. Smith family, Teel Plastics is now
a global specialist in plastic extrusion capabilities, pro-
ducing everything from medical devices for small run
start-ups, to exclusive products for Fortune 500 and
Fortune 100 companies across a variety of industries.
That’s progress.
State-of-the-Art Strategy
Over six decades, the company has excelled by em-
bracing and developing new technology. Christian Her-
rild, Director of Sales and Marketing, explains, “The
strategy for a long time was: we would basically take
on any project in any market that met the technical
and manufacturing capabilities we already had. That
was the driving vision, until the Jay Smith family took
over in the late 1990s. Then the focus was put on
establishing a market fit and technical fit through re-
search and new development.”
Today, the company has three Lean Enterprise facili-
ties, all located in Baraboo, employing up to 250 work-
ers on separate campuses, less than six miles apart.
Built to the highest “green” standards, the main ex-
trusion plant also serves as the company’s corporate
headquarters. A second building house TeelDas, a di-
vision that produces an innovative termite protection
product. Historic sites, including the Statue of Liberty
and the White House, are grateful end-users of the
product.
MANUFACTURING
