Creative Plastics will put anything in a case for display

Business First of Buffalo - by Jane Schmitt Business First

USA , November 29, 2007

It all started with Beanie Babies.

When the owners of what is now Creative Plastics had a simple idea to create a display case for the wildly popular collectibles, they didn’t know they were in for a wild ride themselves.

“We started researching mold makers to make a mold for a plastic case,” Kimberly Latko said. “We projected we would sell around 100,000 Beanie Baby cases, and we ended up selling 1.2 million the first year. I left my job as a human resources manager and we ran the business out of the spare bedroom of our home.

Now the company has 16 employees and a manufacturing facility, warehouse, and offices on Rano Street. And thanks to an overall growth rate of more than 50 percent for sales and employment, it is ranked as one of the region’s fastest growing companies for the second consecutive year. As a state-certified Women Business Enterprise, Creative Plastics also has appeared on the Business First list of the area’s top women-owned business, ranked by full-time employees.

When the Beanie Baby craze started to wane, the Latkos took their impressive earnings and invested the money in a new, manufacturing venture that would enable them to create any size case from acrylic. The demand was there from collectors of dolls, sports memorabilia, and more. Soon, they were hitting tradeshows, Kim said, and they eventually branched into higher-volume sign holders, brochure holders and other point-of-purchase displays.

“We are very creative so our niche is the custom display market,” she said. “Our customers love our ability to quickly design unique displays for their products. We will also manufacture one piece or thousands. We are very flexible and easy to work with.”

Apparently so, because Creative Plastics boasts national contracts to produce displays for such industry giants as Kraft, Lexus, Harley Davidson, Sprint, Match.com, and General Motors Corp.

Primary markets are promotions, marketing and advertising. Besides manufacturing, Creative Plastics has a design and graphics department that can quickly produce electronic prototypes, plus a screen printing division.

The owners point to three factors for their growth: longtime participation in a global forum for business owners called the Entrepreneurs Organization (eonetwork.org); employees who share their vision; and an executive management team that makes things work.

 “You have to love what you do to get through the tough times of having your own business.” Kimberly Latko said. “You have to be eternally optimistic. … You go through incredible highs and devastating lows, and I know you can’t survive if your executive team is not driven and guided by a shared passion for what you are doing.”