Mr. Flannagan Goes To China | The 'Godfather' of Leominster plastics gets a new gig
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Richard Flannagan.
It would be hard to find anyone in the North Central Massachusetts plastics manufacturing cluster who doesn’t know Richard Flannagan.
Flannagan not only ran one of the area’s big plastics companies, Stan-Cast Corp. in Leominster, but he has also been a champion of the National Plastics Center & Museum in Leominster.
Now, at an age when many businesspeople would be retired, Flannagan is using his expertise to start a new consulting business, helping other companies make molds in Asia.
Second Life
After Flannagan sold Stan-Cast to Clinton-based Injectronics Corp. in 2002, he stayed with the company, managing its local operations and getting molds made all over the world. That remained the case four years later, when Injectronics sold its automotive business, and Stan-Cast with it, to Blue Water Automotive Systems of Michigan.
Then, this February, Blue Water went bankrupt and decided to close the Leominster location.
Immediately, Flannagan said, his phone started ringing with calls from others in the industry looking for help getting molds made in China. He said he stayed with Blue Water until July 22, and on July 23 he incorporated his new company, Molds International & Consulting Co. Inc. So far, he said, the company has racked up nearly $1 million in sales.
Clearly, Flannagan has something of a reputation in the industry. Nancy Jackson, vice president of the North Central Massachusetts Development Corp., said that, years ago, when she started an initiative to link local plastics manufactures with the medical device industry, she called on Flannagan’s expertise.
“I sort of knew that I had to check with the godfather of plastics, so I went over to Dick for a sanity check,” she said. “I just have respect for him. If he’s sourcing molds for U.S. companies in China, well that’s good, that’s probably the best way to go.”
Flannagan said he first started working internationally in the mid-1980s in Europe. In 1992, he made his first trip to China. In his new consulting business, he said, he is matching companies from New England and the Midwest with mold-makers in China and India. Next year, he said, he hopes to make inroads in Vietnam.
“The first challenge obviously is to get accustomed to the culture and the nuances between the different languages, being careful how something is stated,” he said. “Because we are in a technology business, it’s very easy to mislead one another, not intentionally but just because of the nuances.”
Of course, not everyone sees doing business in China as an unqualified good. Ken Tomasetti, president of ACT Fastening Solutions in Gardner, said his company has no interest in sending any of its mold-making work overseas. He isn’t thrilled at the idea of exporting jobs, he said, and he doesn’t think he could get the precision workmanship and quality of steel he’s looking for in China.
“Our tools have to run the Indy every day at full speed,” he said.
Flannagan said he understands critics who would like to keep jobs at home, but he doesn’t see that view as realistic.
“It’s a changing world,” he said. “It’s a global marketplace and we all have to understand that.”
But Flannagan agreed with Tomasetti that some molds will always be made in the United States. Delivery times, proprietary designs and hands-on control are all incentives for manufactures to make some molds locally, he said.
“The question will become, how big will that marketplace be?” he said. “I think at some level it will continue to shrink.”
Meanwhile, it seems likely that Flannagan’s business will continue to grow.
John Clementi, president and CEO of Leominster plastics manufacturer Plastican Inc., said he’s been impressed with Flannagan’s work on behalf of the industry, as well as local nonprofit institutions.
“Dick is a great guy and he knows a lot about the business, so I’m sure he will have a great deal to offer his clients by way of advice and information,” he said.
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