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Moldamatic
Written by Jessica Ferlaino

Established in 1967, Moldamatic, LLC is the injection molding partner of choice for small businesses and Fortune 100 companies alike. Bringing years of molding experience, expertise and the resources to match, it has satisfied customers in North America and around the world.
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Moldamatic was founded by William Spolar and started with two injection molding presses, a small base of customers and an entrepreneurial drive. Customers rely on Moldamatic for tool and die design and plastic injection molding, mold building, part production and secondary. William Spolar Jr. took over the business in 1976 and continued to grow the company.

Today, under the ownership of Rick Bollard, who was a manufacturer’s representative for Moldamatic for twenty years prior to purchasing the company fourteen years ago, it has come a long way, while staying true to the values upon which it was built.

Moldamatic brings proven, complete molding and design solutions to customers in multiple industries. It has the production capacity to deliver top-notch mold making, engineering and value-added services like part design, prototyping, painting, plating, welding, tool design and assembly. The company was recently certified to the new ISO 9001:2015.

“We’ve positioned ourselves very nicely in several industries, which has allowed us to expand upon those industries throughout the United States and abroad. We have a sales force that does a very good job of working with the current customers while also expanding into new industries. There might only be a few states we don’t ship product to,” explained Rick.

Moldamatic offers customers the advantage of having a single point of contact thanks to its comprehensive approach. Its vast in-house capabilities and efficient production cycle, as well as its devotion to monitoring quality throughout the entire manufacturing process, result in faster turnaround and greater overall customer satisfaction.

“We upgraded our tool shop, upgraded our molding machines, personnel and our quality department. We have state of the art equipment that we use. Our tool shop, I would say, is very well qualified to build any mold out there and to do any repairs.”

Rick is always looking to add to the sales team and engineering resources to maintain the progress Moldamatic has been experiencing. With a training department and an apprentice tool maker program in-house, it is just a matter of finding people who are the right fit for the company.

Another way Moldamatic has addressed the increased demand for skilled labor is through a significant investment in robotics and automation. Rick noted that advanced technology has not replaced people in his operations; it has only improved competitiveness. Rather than being displaced, employees are reassigned to other departments or positions where they can make a more significant impact.

Moldamatic has 160 employees who operate three shifts, five days a week, to address the demand for its products, and this makes people one of its greatest assets.

“I can make you a plastic part, and I can quote you a price, but it’s the people that are doing the manufacturing, the people who are behind the scenes, that are getting things done, that make all the difference,” said Rick.

Customers especially appreciate the engineering support they receive from Moldamatic. “We’ve added key people in our engineering department, our tooling department and our operations over the last fifteen years, growing the business to where we are today,” Rick explained. “The length of the average employee tenure here at Moldamatic is probably about twenty-five to twenty-eight years. We have a great workforce.”

Rick provided an example of an employee who has been with Moldamatic for upwards of forty years. “Rick Sohmer of tooling and engineering has been with me since he was eighteen years old. He worked through an apprenticeship here and now runs my tooling and engineering department,” he shared.

“We have fathers working here, sons working here, daughters working here. We have three generations working here. We provide good benefits for people and we take care of them like they are part of the family,” Rick said. Thanks to the new tax law, Rick was able to give all his employees a bonus.

Despite the need for talent, with three molding facilities and a total of seven buildings located just five miles from each other, Moldamatic has the manufacturing capabilities to sustain growth. There is also a contingency plan to mitigate the impacts of potential shutdowns.

“The nice thing about having three molding facilities is that we have a disaster recovery plan. If something should go wrong with one of the buildings, I still have two other facilities that I can mold product and won’t lose the supply chain,” Rick explained.

The eventual plan is to bring operations under two facilities instead of three, but always guaranteeing that a secondary facility is available in the event of complications or shutdowns to insulate Moldamatic, and more importantly, its customers, from risk.

Because of its commitment to perfection in each mold making step, it has repeatedly been recognized as a supplier of the year by several of its customers.

Rick’s goal is to keep being profitable and increase sales by ten to fourteen percent per year over the next five years, taking advantage of the potential in the market while remaining a family-owned entity.

“My business continuation plan is: I have three sons who are working in the company, willing and ready to take it to the next level when I decide to retire,” explained Rick. He also acknowledges family members from the previous owner who have remained onboard through the transition in ownership, calling them key to overseeing operations.

While others have come and gone, offshoring and re-shoring operations, Rick is proud to have remained a domestic company in a global arena. “All of the boxes that go out say ‘Made in USA’. We are very proud of that, and we are seeing more stuff coming back overseas to the United States.” The re-shoring trend signals the strength of an industry for which Moldamatic is ready.

In the meantime, Moldamatic will do what it has done for over half a century: invest in its abilities and resources to provide superior quality injection molding to its customers.

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