It is only fitting that Guy Berkebile, founder of Somerset's Guy Chemical Company, launched his company after an Egyptian customer asked him to provide silicone produced in the United States.
Overseas sales have been the lynchpin for Guy, which specializes in filling viscous materials into metal and plastic squeeze tubes and cartridges, since that 1995 Egyptian encounter, says Berkebile. At first, he adds, exports accounted for more than 90% of his business, so much that “we made a concerted effort to boost domestic sales.”
Today 70% of Guy's products – all still manufactured in Somerset – are shipped overseas and the Small Business Administration recently named the company Western Pennsylvania's Exporter of the Year. Guy's biggest overseas customers include the former Soviet republics, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.
Exports have kept Guy less dependent on the local and state economy and helped buoy it during the economic downturn, says Berkebile. In fact, the company has seen huge growth. This time last year, the company's workforce stood at 52; today it is at 85 and Berkebile anticipates adding another 10 or so jobs by year's end.
The company is also growing physically, breaking ground next month for a new 30,000-square-foot warehouse on its 85-acre campus, near the 40,000-square-foot manufacturing plant.
Berkebile says the company is also expanding its focus on research and development in order to develop more of its own products for the market. A new line of silicone greases is in the works.
Source: Guy Berkebile, Guy Chemical Company
Writer: Elise Vider