ZXP Technologies president tells Rotary about new company

ED DAVIS

HIGHLANDS– Ed Davis, CEO of the successor company to Rhinopak Industries, met with the Rotary Club recently to update them on the status of the company, and its place in the community.
Davis is part of an investor group of 18 persons that purchased the company from the previous owners, the John Mecom Companies. Along with financing from Frost Bank, the investors include some of the current plant personnel, and others both local and nationwide who have been in the oil or blending business previously. Davis said that his background was 28 years with Pennzoil, both in Texas and Pennsylvania.
Davis is optimistic about the future of the company, and the industry. He noted that Rhinopak was profitable last year, and that Mecom had invested heavily to update the plant. It now has 17 manufacturing lines, and employs 140 full time and 150 to 200 part time workers, depending upon orders.

His plans include adding more equipment, improving the site, roadways and parking, and changing the status of some employees from temporary to permanent for their benefit.
Other plans include consolidating off-site warehouses into Highlands, recycling pallets, additional landscaping at the plant, improving efficiency in the plant and in the marketing programs.
The company contributes $10,000,000 in salaries to the local economy, Davis said. It maintains an inventory in the plant of almost $30 million in products and materials.
In other ways it impacts the Highlands community, he said that they purchase $1 million in supplies locally, including over 100,000 pallets. Materials come to the plant by barge, rail, and truck. They spend over $45 million each year in transportation costs, and process over $300 million in finished product value. In terms of competition, they are consistently the #1 or #2 producer of anti-freeze products for the whole United States.
Although HiPort had plants in Baton Rouge and Cleveland, Ohio, these have now been closed and the plant in Highlands is the only one that ZXP operates.
Davis was asked to explain the name of the new company. He said that the name had been used by his group for some time, and essentially Z stood for the ultimate in product identity and highest quality, and XP stood for Extreme Performance, therefore setting the goals they expect to reach.