Leading Color Concentrates and Masterbatch Supplier Grows Its Business with Help from ENTEK Extruders

Founded in 1964, Penn Color (www.penncolor.com)  is a leading global manufacturer of color concentrates, masterbatches, and pigment dispersions.  Penn Color has worked closely with ENTEK Extruders since 1999; in fact, ENTEK originally published a story in 2006 about its relationship with Penn Color (link here).

Fast forward to 2017: 11 years later, we thought we’d catch up with Penn Color to see what’s new at the company.  What we found was a success story of growth, expansion, and diversification – and through it all, ENTEK has continued to contribute significantly to that success.

Growth

In a recent interview Penn Color’s Kevin Putman Jr., Director of Sales, Marketing & Operations, and Wayne Miller, Vice President-Manufacturing, spoke about the company’s growth over the past several years and how they have utilized ENTEK’s twin-screw extruders and technical expertise to help with that growth.

‘Business has grown strongly and consistently for Penn Color – both our plastics and liquid color dispersants businesses,’ said Kevin. ‘We’ve added significant capacity, expanded our product development capabilities, and entered new markets. We’ve added facilities in Milton, WI; Europe; and India, all supporting our thermoplastics growth, color masterbatch and additives business.’

The Milton, WI plant opened in 2011 – this was a significant move for Penn Color and was geographically important, as they needed to have a plant closer to their Midwestern customers. This plant, along with several of the other Penn Color locations, is outfitted with numerous ENTEK twin-screw extruders ranging from lab-size to high capacity machines.

Customer Support Makes the Difference

‘ENTEK’s extruders have been an integral part of our growth., said Wayne Miller. ‘We have a wide range of their extruders and have continued to purchase ENTEK machines over the years to support our growth. They make reliable, well built, quality machinery. But with ENTEK, it’s their customer support that sets them apart. The technical support and customer service that ENTEK provides is phenomenal.’

Wayne mentioned that the support Penn Color receives from ENTEK’s Bill Petrozelli is invaluable. ‘Bill provides great technical service to Penn Color,’ he said. He, and the entire ENTEK organization, does a great job making sure we have what we need to succeed.”

Wear Parts Stocking Program

A few years ago, ENTEK approached Penn Color with a proposal to establish a stocking program for twin-screw extruder replacement wear parts. ENTEK had initiated this program with a few key customers and found it to be a valuable way to ensure that spare parts were ready and available for fast shipment when needed.

‘We had seen these parts stocking programs as a way to help both ENTEK and our customers,’ said Tammy Straw, ENTEK’s Marketing and Business Development Manager. “Our customers could know that the parts they need would be available and ready to ship to them on a moment’s notice. At ENTEK, we liked the fact that our lead times for wear parts for our customers would be reduced. It’s truly a win-win program.’

Penn Color now has ENTEK manufacture and stock replacement wear parts including screw elements and barrels at their headquarters in Oregon. ‘This is a great program for us, as it helps Penn Color stay lean with our inventory,’ said Wayne Miller. ‘And we can call on ENTEK to ship the parts we need, when we need them.’

A Bright Future

When it comes to color technology, Penn Color is a leader in providing innovative solutions in plastics and coating formulations. ENTEK is proud to have had a long, mutually beneficial partnership with Penn Color.

‘We started working with Penn Color in the early days of ENTEK Extruders, back in 1999,’ said Bill Petrozelli. ‘and just three months ago we helped them install their latest ENTEK twin-screw extruder at their Hatfield, PA headquarters. They’re a great company that makes quality products, and we’re happy to help support the continued growth of their business.’