The pioneer days of plastics were a time of fantastic growth, considerable risks and classic entrepreneurship.
John H. Schroeder recalls how, in the early 1950s, he and his father, J. Henry Schroeder, and a St. Louis plastics man, Clem Young, struggled to launch their fledgling company, Crescent Plastics of Evansville.
The founders had hoped to make parts for a company where J. Henry Schroeder was once vice president, Sunbeam Electric Manufacturing Co. But that didn't pan out.
Crescent was rescued when executives at Whirlpool Corp. of Evansville caught wind of what the company was doing, and one day called. They had unexpectedly run out of a plastic part for their refrigerators and, unless they could get these parts by tomorrow, they would have to temporarily shut down their plant - a costly proposition.
John H. Schroeder recalled how he and a co-worker saw their opportunity and worked round the clock to create the plastic parts Whirlpool needed. Whirlpool was so pleased with the results, they became a long-time client.
"So we saved them from being shut down," John H. Schroeder said in an interview at the Crescent Plastics offices recently. "From then on, we were OK," he said. "We had a lot of business after that," from Whirlpool and others.
John H. Schroeder, chairman and chief executive officer of Crescent Plastics, is the head of a family-owned business that not only includes Crescent Plastics at 955 Diamond Ave., but Wabash Plastics at 1300 Burch Drive in McCutchanville, and Cresline Plastic Pipe Co., which is based in Evansville and has seven plants nationwide, including one in Henderson, Ky. Cresline West and Cresline Northwest are pipe-making companies like Cresline that are also owned by the Schroeder family. The total employment of the companies is 900 to 1,000.
The story of Crescent Plastics covers more than five decades, and in many ways it mirrors the entrepreneurship and expansion that characterized the entire industry as it developed in Evansville at this time.
John H. Schroeder remembers studying the plastics industry in graduate school in the late 1940s. Hearing how it had grown in those early years, he recalls thinking that there could not be much room for growth left. Of course, he was very wrong, he realizes now. The real growth was beginning.
John H. Schroeder's father, J. Henry Schroeder, had been the executive vice president of Sunbeam Electric Manufacturing Co., and he retired from that position in the late 1940s, or about the same time the son was finishing college. J. Henry was interested in launching a business of his own - one not as big and as Sunbeam.
Through a local clergyman, J. Henry was introduced to Clem Young, a man who worked in the plastics business in St. Louis. Young, who was in Evansville often to sell his plastic products to Evansville-based refrigerator-maker Servel Corp., had the knowledge of the plastics industry that was required to start a plastics company.
The J. Henry Schroeder decided plastics might be the business for him and he, his son and Young started Crescent Plastics, which was chartered in 1949 and began operation in 1950 in an old furniture factory at Columbia and First Ave.
Crescent Plastics made extrusion plastics. These are products that are pushed through a mold much like meat is pushed through a meat grinder. The mold shapes the plastic into the desired shape, which is cut when it reaches the right length.
Crescent took off when it helped Whirlpool with a part, but it soon found other markets. One of them was plastic pipe - a product made by extrusion and one that proved to be in demand. Plastic pipe works better than metal in almost every situation but those involving high pressure, John H. Schroeder said.
To handle the growing demand for plastic pipe, Cresline Plastic Pipe Co. was founded, becoming a separate corporation from Crescent in 1966.
While pipes can be made by extrusion, the fittings for pipes must be made by injection molding. By this method plastic is heated, put under pressure and injected into a mold. As a result, Wabash Plastics was formed with five machines that made pipe fittings in 1993.
Today, John H. Schroeder's sons have key positions in these companies. John C. Schroeder is president and Crescent and Wabash Plastics and Richard Schroeder is president of Cresline Plastic Pipe Co.
One big change in the industry over the years has been that companies have merged, or acquired other companies, or gone out of business, making the current companies bigger than they once were. Imports from China are also changing the business, and there is an excess capacity in the business putting pressure on prices, according to John C. Schroeder. "There are more injection molders chasing fewer jobs," he said.
The business is becoming more technical and automated. Robots are doing more of the work that was once done by hand. "In fact, if you don't have robotics, you can't compete," John C. Schroeder said.
Plastics are still an important part of the local economy, but they are not as big as they once were here, said the John H. Schroeder. "Hoosier Cardinal is gone. Kent Plastics is gone. It's a changing world," he said.