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QUICK FACTS: |
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Sales
Information:
Year Ended April 30,
2005: $24,400,000 up
2%
Employment:
Ironwood: 140
Two Rivers: 50
Total Employment: 190
Upcoming Trade
Shows:
MD&M Show -
Minneapolis November 2-3,
2005
SAE Show -
Detroit
April 03-06, 2006
Snowfall
Information:
Year to Date:
Last Year to Date:
2004-2005 Snowfall:
162.3"
2003-2004 Snowfall:
200.3" | | |
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Ironwood Plastics,
Inc.
Ironwood
Division 1235 Wall
Street
Ironwood, MI 49938
Phone: (906) 932-5025
Two
Rivers Division 2800
18th Street
Two Rivers, WI 54241
Phone: (920)
793-3060
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Lemons and Plastics?
What do lemons
have to do with Plastics?
For the past 9 Years, Ironwood’s
entire workforce has gathered together for an annual
training session and meeting. This year's meeting was
held at the Ironwood Memorial Building on May 23rd and then
again in Two Rivers on June 10th.
A
unique employee benefit is that the company offers full
disclosure of financial performance monthly to all
employees. Financial performance is tied to a cash
Profit Sharing Program that has paid over $1,000,000 in the
last nine years. One of the goals of the
annual event is to train all new employees to read and
understand a basic financial statement.
 To make it easy to
understand, our internal accountant develops a model company
to illustrate the point: A Lemonade Stand. The
Lemonade Stand is broken down to a simple income statement
showing materials (lemons), labor (the kid down the street)
and other components of a normal financial statement found in
the plastics business.
The meeting
also includes training in customer service and expectations
and company history and values. To help personalize
these topics, several current customers graciously allowed
themselves to be videotaped while speaking about the pros and
cons of working with Ironwood Plastics. This approach allows
us to communicate the message of what our customers demand in
a powerful way: The customer’s own voice.
The remainder of the half-day session
revolves around talking about upcoming challenges and gives
management the chance to discuss company goals with all its
team members. This year, Management received its own bit of
training: Each Work Team put together a briefing discussing
their personal challenges and
objectives. |
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Ironwood Displays at
Detroit SAE SHOW .
By:
Mark Stephens, Vice President
Ironwood Plastics displayed
at the SAE show in Detroit ,
Michigan on April 11-14.
This marks the sixth straight year that IWP has had a booth at
the show. Although the show has changed dramatically over the
years, with a much higher international presence, it continues
to provide a good forum to chat with existing and potential
customers. It
also continues to amaze me how many people walk by the booth,
stop and say- “Ironwood …..is that the Ironwood in the U.P.?”
When they see the snowshoes in the booth, they of course,
realize it is that same Ironwood. The conversation then shifts
to how they are either from the area, deer hunt, ski or
snowmobile in our town. After telling a few Ironwood stories
and looking in amazement at some of the high-tech components
that Ironwood produces we go on to the next
inquiry….
Ironwood
will again display at the SAE show in
Detroit
April
3-6, 2006
as well as our third MD&M show in
Minneapolis
on November
2-3, 2005. |
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