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A Look Back at the History of Team 1 Plastics

As part of the year-long celebration of its 30th anniversary, Team 1 Plastics, a plastic injection molding company for the automotive industry, is highlighting different milestones in its history through a series of articles. This month’s article features Jim Capo, the third co-owner of Team 1 Plastics from 1987-2004.

Team 1 Plastics is currently owned by two partners, Craig Carrel and Gary Grigowski. But, when the company was started, there were three co-owners. Jim Capo was the third. He recently shared about his life and some memories of his time with Team 1 Plastics.

Born in the Detroit area, Jim attended the University of Michigan and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering. After college, he got his first job at a company manufacturing plastic resin called Celanese located in New Jersey. When a recession caused some reduction of staff, he was offered a transfer to their sales office in Detroit. That is where Jim eventually met Gary and, later, Craig.

Jim was sent to Japan for about a year, working with Japanese automotive supply companies that were buying plastic from Celanese. While he was there, he realized that the Japanese automotive supply companies which were opening facilities in the United States, “… were looking for suppliers that met their standards – what they were used to seeing in Japan. A lot of time they would use smaller, family-owned businesses in the United States, but these businesses didn’t have quality standards – standards which the Japanese considered were modus operandi for their plants and for manufacturing.”

He returned to Celanese’s Detroit office about the same time that Craig and Gary were thinking about leaving the company to start their own business. Jim suggested, “Injection molding looks easy enough. We could do that!” He explained to them what he had discovered about the shortage of quality plastics parts suppliers in the United States that could meet the Japanese automotive supplier’s standards at a competitive price. Both Craig and Gary agree that one of the most valuable things that Jim contributed to Team 1 Plastics was his initial concept for what type of business the company could be and clearly identifying and articulating the target market.

When Team 1 Plastics officially opened its doors on December 1, 1987, in Albion’s Economic Development Corporation’s incubator, Gary was the first Team Member. Craig joined the company in January 1988, but Jim continued to work at Celanese until March 1989. “We formed the partnership and made the decision to leave the big company. It was just a matter of timing on when we left.” Even though he wasn’t working there yet, Jim contributed financially to Team 1 by sharing a portion of his salary with Craig and Gary so that everyone had equivalent compensation.

Jim described the roles of each of the partners. “We all had talents in different areas. I think that’s why the partnership worked so well. I really like the sales side of the business. Craig liked the organizational side of the business. Gary was the technical person. It just worked out well. We had areas that we liked to work in. And together, it was all the areas you needed to run a good business.”

Within the next few years after Jim joined Team 1 Plastics, the company experienced significant growth. And soon, it was evident that the company needed to leave the EDC’s incubator and move into its own plant.

One of Jim’s favorite memories of his time with Team 1 was the brainstorming sessions at Lopez Taco House in downtown Albion. Jim said that he looked forward when “Craig, Gary and I had a chance to get to Lopez Taco House.” He said that in the early days, they were too busy working but after they had started to stabilize in the new plant, they went at least once or twice each week. “It was like a time-out from all of hectic pace of what we were doing. It was definitely something to look forward to. Being with my partners, that was a good time.”

Growth continued for Team 1 Plastics, including significant work for ASMO in North Carolina. The decision was made to open another Team 1 facility in Greensboro, North Carolina. Jim, who said that he loves “… the creative processes and to keep moving and trying new things,” agreed to move his family to North Carolina to run this new facility. “We had an opportunity to have a second plant. I jumped on that opportunity to go down to North Carolina – which didn’t work out long-term for the business – but it turned out very good for me because my wife and family definitely like North Carolina a lot more than Michigan.”

The work in North Carolina was not sustainable, and Team 1 Plastics, and Jim, in particular, had to make a decision about the future. Jim chose to leave Team 1 Plastics. “It eventually came to a decision that if I was going to stay at Team 1, it would mean moving back to Michigan. I wasn’t really into that. It was time for another new thing. I’m always looking for the next new thing to try.” The partners were able to negotiate a buy-out of Jim’s shares over time that met each party’s needs.

Since leaving Team 1 Plastics, Jim has continued to venture into new things. He spent some time working at the John Birch Society in North Carolina. He now lives in New Zealand where he works for Ixom, a chemicals, plastics, and metal distributor, and for RimPro-Tec, which is, according to its website, the “Leading Provider of Alloy and Mag Wheel Rim Protection.”

The partners’ story has a happy ending. After Craig and Gary bought out Jim’s shares when he left Team 1 Plastics in January 2004, the three men remained close friends. Distance prevents them from seeing each other often, but they continue to stay in touch and remember fondly the “early” years of Team 1 Plastics.