Hats off to Tonkon Torp client Cascadia Custom Molding. The company recently answered an urgent call to help increase the supply of ventilators for critically-ill victims of COVID-19. The plastics company, with facilities in Woodinville, WA, and Coeur d’Alene, ID, is supplying General Motors and Ventec Life Systems with critical parts in a rush ramp-up for production of Ventec’s unique multi-function ventilators.
Currently, Cascadia is supplying two dozen of the parts needed to build the fast-tracked Ventec ventilators. The ramp-up has been a frenzy of activity. Cascadia was asked in late March, on a Saturday, if it could make 20,000 parts to support the ventilator buildout. Cascadia’s co-owner Dale Meyer immediately agreed. The ask was a big one—Cascadia previously made about 150 parts a month for Ventec.
The company is using both of its manufacturing facilities to keep pace with demand, which is keeping its workforce of 180 employed, according to co-owner Janeanne Upp. Adding to the crunch-time atmosphere, worker health and safety is also a big concern. The Woodinville facility is located just a few miles from the nursing home that was at the epicenter of the Washington State virus outbreak, so that facility sits in a hotspot. The Coeur d’Alene facility is less impacted, but Idaho has certainly not been spared from the coronavirus.
Cascadia is going to extreme measures to meet the challenges of increased production and intensified worker safety issues. “We take every worker’s temperature at the start of a shift and issue a ‘colored dot’ to be worn as a visual indicator that the worker passed the temperature check for the day. At first, we didn’t even have thermometers and couldn’t find any. Fortunately, our HR manager let us borrow hers for the first week and we’ve since been able to obtain some,” Upp said. Additionally, all employees practice strict social distancing while working; and the company has increased its cleaning schedule, with rigid cleaning rules in place during shifts and weekend deep cleanings.
To scale up quickly in the middle of a pandemic, Cascadia also had to iron out supply chain issues stemming from volume increases and transportation obstacles. The company was able to quickly work out the kinks. “Our suppliers have been fabulous. They really stepped up when we needed them to. Some of them were slowing down because other work has fallen off, but we were asking for a lot—10 times what we might normally need in some cases,” Upp said.
The effort has paid off. “We’ve been hitting our targets and we intend to continue to hit them for as long as we’re needed,” Upp said.
That determination comes as no surprise to Tonkon’s litigation partner Anna Sortun. “Dale and Janeanne are hardworking people who are invested in the success of their company. Everyone who works there takes a ton of pride in the company and really cares about results,” she said.
A $35 million company built on a single word of advice
Cascadia is co-owned by Meyer and Upp. Meyer’s career trajectory in the plastics industry began in 1967 when he heeded the one-word advice that Mr. McGuire provide to Benjamin Braddock in the film The Graduate. That advice? “Plastics.” In the film Mr. McGuire implores new college graduate Braddock: “There's a great future in plastics. Think about it.” Clearly Meyer did much more than think about it. He has spent more than 50 years in the plastics business and, indeed, he has found a great career there. Upp spent her pre-Cascadia career working for museums in several cities.
The two purchased the Coeur d’Alene company in 2003. “It was a small company and it was losing money. My husband didn’t even hesitate, he bought it and turned it around,” she said. In 2016, the year Meyer turned 72, the pair bought a Woodinville competitor and blended the two companies into Cascadia Custom Molding, now a $35 million company employing approximately 180.
Tonkon partner Justin Denton worked on that acquisition, which doubled the size of the company. “They are good people, with strong personalities who have aggressively grown their company. They’re a joy to work with,” he said. Many Tonkon lawyers have worked with Cascadia, problem-solving for all aspects of their business.
“We want to be known for our quality and customer service. We pride ourselves on taking on tough injection molding projects. We don’t do simple work, our niche is highly technical complex plastic parts,” Meyer said.