Forging the Future: T&C Manufacturing Breaks Out of Mold when Original Company Leaves Great Bend

What would you do if your longtime employer relocated 600 miles away?  If you are bold like Craig Pangburn and Tom McGlinn, you purchase the company’s local assets and create a better business opportunity for yourself and the community right here by providing consulting services and customized rubber molding products nationwide.

T&C in Person – T&C MFG owners Tom McGlinn (left) and Craig Pangburn stand in front of their sign at their Hoover location.  “When Rice was ready to sell, they had two outside companies ready to purchase the rubber molding plant and if we wouldn’t have purchased those assets, that operation would have left Barton County,” explained McGlinn.

The manufacturing partners, who represent the initials in T&C MFG & Operating, Inc.  faced their dilemma a dozen years ago when Rice Engineering Corporation, where Tom and Craig both worked, decided to downsize the company and move to west Texas.

Neither McGlinn nor Pangburn wanted to relocate. So Pangburn, a licensed geologist, and McGlinn, an accountant, purchased Rice’s local assets and formed their own company in 1996. With that transaction, Great Bend gained a diverse rubber molding and consulting company that today has tripled to 30 employees, which includes four part-time employees. Beyond it’s company assets contributing to the local economy, T&C accounts for millions of dollars in subcontracting work for other area companies.

“It helped a lot of people in this area with us not moving to Texas,” said McGlinn, who worked for Rice for nearly 40 years before the company left Great Bend.  “T&C has been a great asset to a lot of people and businesses here.  We took a huge leap when we purchased the business. I was reaching retirement age and I essentially started over again.”

Plant Consulting – Jim Thorson (left) discusses a job with Ron Peters at T&C’s plant. T&C utilizes several mold makers to cast various molds, according to the engineering drawing. Once the mold is made, T&C then formulates how much rubber it will take to make that particular part. “Initially, before prototyping, it is determined what volume of rubber is needed to manufacture the part,” said Peters. When fully staffed, T&C’s Rubber Plant operates with six employees. Thorson worked for Rice Engineering and stayed with the operation when T&C formed 12 years ago.

“It has kept the youth in him,” kidded Pangburn, who worked 13 years for Rice before partnering with McGlinn.

Today, there’s faint similarity between T&C and the company it replaced.  Rice took its core business, irrigation and Duoline processes, with it to Texas, so T&C grew its business with environmental consulting services and custom rubber molding. T&C started operation with five rubber mold presses and now has expanded operations with 12 presses. The bulk of Rice’s business was mostly manufacturing, while 80 percent of T&C’s business today comes from engineering, geological and environmental consulting.

T&C’s consulting division has grown substantially with demand placed on companies to meet regulatory compliance within the oil, gas and underground storage industries.

T&C is hardly comparable to what we used to do at Rice,” said McGlinn.  “We started with the disposal systems and manufacturing irrigation gaskets, but it has grown so much more beyond that today.”

T&C’s consulting division engineers, designs, installs and operates salt water disposal systems as well as designs and operates wastewater and brine water disposal wells.  The department also provides consulting services led by Bruce Yahne, manager of field operations and Dan Murta, special projects manager with designing drilling, and permit application processing of Class I, III and underground cavern storage wells.

Pulling Gaskets – Jim Thorson removes gaskets from molds. Although providing services to customers nationwide, regionally, T&C regularly provides rubber molding products to many area companies.

T&C’s custom rubber molding division utilizes compression and injection molding operations to specialize in manufacturing rubber products for irrigation, oilfield, commercial, industrial, medical and waster-water industries.

Related to the oil field, the company produces corrosion seal rings for lined oilfield pipe.  T&C makes rubber parts used to cement casings within the oil/gas industry, and it makes a wide range of oilfield gaskets. Its customized molding operation is boosted by business with oilfield supply stores.

Double Time – Joe Bieberle (right) and Jeremy Ferguson remove gaskets from the molds. Bieberle has been with the company four years and Ferguson has been with T&C for about a year. “There’s training that has to occur for the plant positions, but it is mostly on-the-job training,” said Peters.

In relation to agriculture, T&C manufactures rubber products for some of the largest farm implement companies in the state and beyond.

Rubber molding jobs can be anything from all-terrain wheelchair tires manufactured for a company in Newton, to a customized rubber piece on Aircraft Carriers for the United States Navy.  More than a year ago, T&C built specialized rubber pieces to serve as light guards for a baseball affiliate in Montgomery, Ala.  About 40 customized pieces were made to fill space around the stadium walkway lights to ensure fan safety.  T&C’s custom rubber molding business covers the nation and even branches into Canada.

“Our biggest custom molding customer is in Mississippi, our biggest oilfield gasket customer is in Oklahoma; and our biggest irrigation customer is in Idaho, said T&C marketing director, Linda Lara.  “We don’t have a niche market; we are all over the place with many products.”

Gaskets Galore – Shown on a peg board of T&C MFG’s rubber molding plant are some of the many irrigation gaskets that the company manufacturers. The gaskets comprise one of two areas that the rubber molding plant operates, with 60 percent of its business coming from customized operations and 40 percent coming from irrigation production.

“Indirectly, I don’t know how many companies we service,” said T&C plant manager Ron Peters.  “They are too numerous to keep track of because the companies we sell to in turn sell to other companies.  In a lot of ways, we don’t have a particular product to sell; it’s just filling whatever demand is there, so we never know where many of our products will end up.”

Business has expanded so much that T&C hired rubber sales representative Craig Thurman, who travels the country meeting with established customers and prospects, and attends trade shows.  “I have weeks that I’ve driven about 3,000 miles,” said Thurman.  “I’ve seen a lot of people and driven to a lot of states where I meet with manufacturers that might have some rubber needs for a custom item.

T&C Consulting Services have also expanded beyond Kansas with consulting work in Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas.  To keep pace, T&C hired its second licensed geologist, Mike Rose.

T&C Staff – Representing some of T&C MFG’s Hoover office operation are left to right, Craig Thurman, Debbie Komarek, Patty Scheck, Dennis Smith, Kristi Hillshafer, Angie Anderson and Linda Lara. T&C’s corporate office is located at 1020 Hoover, and the rubber molding plant is located a few miles east of Great Bend.

“It’s been the growth of T&C’s workforce that has resulted in our success,” said Pangburn.  “Our success has been because of our employees,” said Pangburn.  “The key is finding the right people and the right partners.  Tom is a mastermind in financials and accounting.  He knows where we are each day and keeps us afloat.  Likewise, our employees work hard at what they do.  They are dedicated and they believe in the vision that Tom and I have set forward, which has made it work well.”

The successful formula has moved T&C MFG & Operating Inc. further along faster than Pangburn and McGlinn ever imagined 12 years ago.  “I thought it would take time, at least 20-plus years down the road to achieve what we have today.” said Pangburn.  “Never did we think in 12 years that we would be where we are today.”

www.tcmfg.com