On payday, Dale Foland opens his check with a smile that says, after 35 years, the thrill of running his own business is as fresh as ever. He is not a high profile character and he is not as polished talking about his business as you might expect of a seasoned CEO. But there’s a charming innocence about him as he nervously shuffles items on his desk during an interview with a reporter.
When the topic settles on company growth, he becomes more animated. The business—which leads the industry as an extruder of continuous rubber seals and gaskets used in insulated doors and windows, insulated glass and weatherstripping—is divided into five operating divisions: Lauren Manufacturing, Edgetech IG, Fluorolast, Lauren/Meteor LLC and LMI Custom Mixing.
The company recently signed a contract with Daimler-Benz—before the merger with Chrysler—to make door seals for Mercedes and Volkswagen. The window insulation made by Edgetech and Fluorolast’s flexible paint-like coating are starting to create excitement in their markets.
Fluorolast has been in development for 15 years and should turn a profit for the first time in 1999. Lauren International also is developing two new products that Foland won’t say anything about. One of them, he thinks, will do for Lauren what Scotch Tape did for 3M.
When asked about his work philosophies, he replies, “Train, train, train and take care of the customers regardless of the cost. If you establish trust, never betray it. Those types of things.
“I don’t have anything you could write a book about. I guess it’s instincts. … I always say, ‘Give everybody a reason to get up in the morning.’”