A veteran-owned business has preserved and added jobs in the Newark area, with the help of Small Business Administration financing.
At its production site on Ruthar Drive, O’Connor Belting International produces European-style conveyor belting that sorts and packages product for customers worldwide, including household names such as as Kraft Foods; National Gypsum; and Tootsie Roll Industries. A ceremony and tour was held last week to mark the work of the veteran-owned business. In attendance were SBA and elected officials including Lt. Gov. Matt Denn and Cong. John Carney.
In 1993, the company was opened by European manufacturer Fabreeka International under its own name and then joined the Netherlands-based Derco BV corporate family in 2007. Plant manager Paul O’Connor ran the operation.
Belting has long been a manufacturing specialty in the state with J.E. Rhoads and Sons operating in the state until the 1990s. Rhoads was the longest continuously operating business in the nation at the time it closed its doors in Newark.In 2011, O’Connor Belting International took its current form, following its purchase by Paul O’Connor. Today, O’Connor Belting is the only east-coast-based producer of customized European-manufactured conveyor belting and the sole American distributor of Derco brand belting.
Along with a stateside customer base, O’Connor Belting now exports to customers in a host of foreign countries, including Brazil, Argentina, South Africa , Zimbabwe and Indonesia, as well as other African and Indonesian countries. The company specializes in quickly filling orders for all sorts of specialized belting. It maintains a large inventory at its headquarters and manufacturing site on Ruthar Drive.
Since launching O’Connor Belting for its then-owner, Fabreeka International, in 1993, the Delaware facility’s head, Paul O’Connor, had been able to grow the business. Yet, in 2010, the Delaware site’s future hung in the balance as owner, Derco BV, threatened to close the Delaware operation’s doors for good by selling the plant, with the new owner moving equipment elsewhere.
O’Connor – a Delaware native, Vietnam War combat veteran, and U.S. Army Special Green Beret with nearly 30 years of belting industry experience – was waiting for an opportunity.
Derco’s management approached him an offer. If O’Connor could muster a sufficient cash down payment, he could purchase Derco’s Delaware-based enterprise and continue the business in Delaware as the only U.S.-based Derco distributor.And, as owner of the business, O’Connor could realize another dream – he could create his own family business. O’Connor’s two sons, Paul, Jr., and Eric, were already following in their father’s career footsteps, logging 17 and 5 years, respectively, building their own careers at the Delaware facility and moving from the shop floor and into management.
The task was made harder by the difficulty of finding financing as the nation went through a steep recession.
By 2010, O’Connor had an established relationship with SBA lender Wells Fargo, and Wells Principal Relationship Manager Shawn Heller understood the value of O’Connor’s proposed purchase of Derco’s Delaware facility, beyond Wells Fargo’s own return-on-investment interest.
Through its flagship financing program, the 7(a) Loan Guaranty Program, SBA makes it easier for participating lenders like Wells Fargo to make small business loans by guaranteeing the lender that SBA will repay 75 to 85 percent of the loan amount should the borrower default.
Heller recruited Wells Fargo’s SBA lending department to back the financing that O’Connor needed to purchase the Delaware production facility.
Soon after Wells Fargo brought the SBA team headed by Andrew Eshleman, its vice president of SBA Business Development, to the table, O’Connor was approved for the loan, settlement was complete, and O’Connor Belting International was born.
Company chief and founder Paul O’Connor was not in attendance at the SBA event as he was overseas in seeking a potentially lucrative opportunity for the company. Sales set a record last year and the company is expecting strong results this year.
(Includes information from the SBA).
