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A plastics company in Greensboro has doubled its revenues in the past five years by following an aggressive new strategy to "take back" business American firms have been sending to China.

"These companies took their products to China, but they are bringing them back because we're becoming more competitive here," said Kirk Sparks, vice president of sales and marketing for Bright Plastics, a custom injection molding company.

Sparks, in an interview at company offices at 4833 High Point Road, pointed to a black plastic hatch cover that had been made in China for an American kayak manufacturer. He said the Chinese factory charged about $9 for the part, and that shipping the hatch covers to the U.S. added about $2.80 to the cost.

Sparks said Bright Plastics took the hatch cover business back from China by showing the kayak company that it could make the part for slightly less than the Chinese factory price, deliver it in weeks, rather than months, and eliminate the overseas shipping cost.

In just the past few months, Sparks said, Bright Plastics has won contracts from three companies to make products that previously had been made in China.

"China may have a low price at the factory, but when companies look at the total cost of paying the freight, paying the duty, paying the interest on their money because the product is sitting on a boat for months, it's clear there are markets where U.S. companies can compete," Sparks said.

The company employs about 80 people - twice the number it had five years ago - and pulls in more than $10 million a year in revenues, compared to less than $5 million five years ago.

The strategy has helped Bright Plastics win industry recognition. Last October, the company won the 2008 Consona Corporation Business Transformation Summit Award, given to "a manufacturing company that has reinvented its business to earn a strong return on investment in a short period of time."

The company makes a variety of products, from small plastic parts used on medical syringes to large truck bumper components. It even makes the clear plastic riot shields and riot helmets police use in crowd control. The firm's markets include consumer, automotive, medical and the government.

A recent military order involved covers to protect sensitive equipment on Marine Corps jets. The product and its packaging had to pass several stringent government inspections.

The company is owned by Stephen K. Bright, founder and president; Joe Vest, a West Point engineering graduate, vice president of manufacturing; and Sparks, an N.C. State business and economics graduate, vice president of sales and marketing. Bright, from Burlington, has a B.S. in industrial engineering and an MBA from Virginia Tech.
After losing some business to China a few years ago, the three sat down to map out a plan to meet the competition head-on.

Their strategy was to serve diverse markets and focus on customers who have special needs that China can't deal with, Sparks said.

Bright said American companies using Chinese factories must carry up to four months of inventory in warehouses because of the long lead times and frequent delays.

"If these companies deal with us, they need only one or two weeks of inventory, which frees up a lot of cash for them," he said.

Vest said Chinese factories could not match the flexibility and responsiveness of an American manufacturer.

"We can make the necessary changes and produce the new products in two weeks, tops," Vest said. "If companies tried to do this with Chinese factories, it would take three or four months."

The company's 77,000 square feet of factory space on High Point Road houses some of the most efficient and advanced equipment in the industry.

The company took over and renovated a 60-year-old building that years ago was a factory for the Amp company, which became Tyco.

Bright founded Bright Plastics 21 years ago after working for several years at Rubbermaid in Ohio, one of the world's leading plastics companies.

Bright said he chose to locate his company in the Triad because it was near his hometown of Burlington and because of the Triad's excellent road system and transportation facilities.

With its focus on customers frustrated with delays and shipping costs involved with Chinese production, Bright Plastics has managed to avoid the worst parts of the economic downturn, at least so far, Bright said.

Bright, 60, who has spent his life in the industry, well remembers the classic 1967 movie, "The Graduate," when a character named Mr. McGuire pulls the graduate, Benjamin, aside:

McGuire: "I want to say one word to you. Just one word."

Benjamin: "Yes, sir."

McGuire: "Are you listening?"

Benjamin: "Yes, I am."

McGuire: "Plastics."

The American Film Institute named that dialog No. 42 of the top 100 quotes in movie history.

"You cannot believe the hundreds of people who have quoted that line to me over the years," Bright said. "Why did that one line have such a big impact on our nation?"
Bright said no one uttered the word "plastics" in his ear when he was graduating from college. He got into the plastics industry when he sent his resume into a job service and it wound up at Rubbermaid.

If someone had advised him then to go into "plastics," it wouldn't have been bad advice, he said.

"Look at all the items Americans use today that are made of plastic," Bright said. "The lesson behind that movie quote is: Plastics are not going away."

John V. McGinnis is a retired journalism professor and disabled veteran.