Americhem and Junior Achievement

Americhem’s partnership with Junior Achievement started with retiree Rick Mathew, who served as our COO in the early 2000s. As a long-term member of Junior Achievement, Rick brought the program to Americhem and I took a personal interest.

I believe that giving back to the community is important. A colleague and I chose to work with high school students. This decision was important to us because these students are getting ready to graduate and enter the world as adults, and we thought that they would really benefit from a real-world business education.

Six years ago we held our first session at Stow High School. We joined a teacher who taught an impressive business management course. Every year for seven weeks, my colleague and I teach courses to this business management class. We start with business ethics and move onto entrepreneurship, which is really fun to do with the students.

When teaching entrepreneurship, we ask the student to create a business. During each step of the business development process, we teach business terminology and best practices. The end result is having the students pitch their “businesses” to potential investors. It is amazing to see their creative spirit. The pupils take the program seriously and are quite impressive. I can remember one year a student arrived dressed as a pig to promote his business where every kind of food was wrapped in bacon.

The classes we work with are amazing. We open ourselves up to be their mentors and there are students that have continued to stay connected after graduation. We had one student who came to Americhem after she graduated high school to intern with us for four years while she was attending college.

In 2011, a colleague here at Americhem and I were nominated by our teacher/partner from Stow High School and won the Northeast Ohio Junior Achievement Volunteer of the Year award and we are now part of the Junior Achievement’s Hall of Fame. That was a really great moment because even though we voluntarily worked with these students and observed their progress, the acknowledgement that we were making a difference in their lives was quite an honor.

I look forward to teaching the classes every year and I believe that Americhem and Junior Achievement make great partners to give students the tools to excel as they continue their education and move into the business world.
 

For more information about Junior Achievement and how you or your business can be part of this great program visit their website.

Christa Batton
Human Resources Manager - North America, Americhem Inc.

Colors with Meaning

At Americhem, color is our business. We work with color every day and we know what makes a good color. With our high color standards, we take a lot of care when choosing the colors to represent our company. We used a tool known as the Dewey Color System®, which is considered the world’s first statistically valid color test that utilizes extensive opinion testing to scientifically verify the common links between color and emotion. With this system, we were able to accurately choose company colors to convey our company values.

Navy Blue
Navy Blue expresses a sense of authority, stability, and efficiency. Over the past 73 years, Americhem has been established as an industry authority. We work hard to educate through our Americhem U  series of courses, to host presentations at industry trade shows, and to be an available resource for our customers.

Navy signifies a company that is stable and efficient and is depended on by its customers. Trust and acceptance from our customers are important. We consistently follow our company principles, holding ourselves to maintaining the highest of ethical and moral standards with our customers.

Sage Green
Sage Green indicates nature and wholesomeness. It represents Americhem’s dedication to being eco-friendly and preserving the natural environment. We recently attained ISO 14001 certification for our Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio plant. This distinction recognizes Americhem for environmental management solution dyeing process  that saves water and energy while eliminating waste material.
systems. We are also the leader of the eco-friendly solution dyeing process that saves water and energy while eliminating waste material.

Green generates a calming, relaxed mood and shows that a company is genuine, forthright, and sincere. Our ability to surpass the competition is dependent upon the collective drive and intellect of cohesive teams. We work in partnership with our customers to create the best available solutions.

Burnt Orange
Burnt Orange is the color chosen to accent our two main colors. While not part of our logo, burnt orange still plays an important part in our company image. It represents Americhem’s specialty in uncovering solutions to problems. Americhem is dedicated to being your problem solver. Some of Americhem’s best selling products came into being as a result of our responsiveness to a specific customer problem.  From idea to reality, we collaborate with our customers to overcome product design challenges and to meet exacting color and end use property specifications.

Orange embodies our innovative spirit and responsiveness to customer needs. Our research and development team are constantly working on polymeric research that leads to groundbreaking technologies  for our customers. We strive to improve our own efficiency and effectiveness to provide the best value and innovations to our customers.

Aubrey Barto

Marketing Assistant, Americhem Inc.

President's Post- Planning

Fall is an exciting time for Americhem, the new fiscal year is upon us. We get to watch our months of preparation and planning come together to benefit the company as a whole. It really is invigorating to see the plans we have been working on come to life for 2015 and beyond, to have learned from 2014 and to push forward growing as a company.

It’s important to step back and assess your business, to check that you have the necessary tools to reach the company’s financial and operational goals. But above all, this is the time to work with your employees, making sure your employees are motivated in their work environment. This critical factor is key to a competitive advantage in the market place.

I am proud of what Americhem was able to accomplish during 2014, and I have high hopes for 2015. This year we received multiple technical certifications, presented a successful Color Trends program, doubled the size and capacity of our plant in China and rebranded our online presence.

However, Americhem is not immune to the trends of the economies around us. The key to business growth into a new year is being vigilant in how you respond to the macro-economic trends for the economies and markets you are working in. Finding balance in an up and down economy can be tough, but through thorough planning I believe it can be done. In the end, a plan is only as effective as its first day.

Read more with our article in Plastics News.

John Deignan

President, Americhem Inc.