G^ASKETS O^RINGS R^{UBBER, INC. ™}

           Les Wood worked for 10 years as a shop foreman for Steam Supply and Rubber Company, where his duties also included purchasing & overseeing the hand making of gaskets.  In 1973, Les started a small family gasket cutting business named The Gasket Shop.  In 1978, he started a gasket materials supply house named Gardico, Inc.  In 1995, he sold Gardico, Inc. and retired to Montana.

             Randy Wood worked for his father from 1977 to 1995 working his way to Sales Manager just prior to the company being sold.  Randy later began working for a competitor gasket manufacture, gaining more valuable experience in purchasing and customer service.

             Together, this adds up to almost sixty years of gasket experience and prudent purchasing of gasket materials. 

How can a small gasket manufacturer in rural Montana be competitive?

            If you read our price quote page, we answer this question pretty well, but in addition to lower wages and overhead costs such as utilities and maintenance, we own the 6000 square foot building that we currently work out of, and more importantly, the renovations to increase this to 15,000 square feet will be less than half what big city landlords have to pay.  It is great to live in a community that is content to charge what is necessary and not one dime more.

What about meeting shipping deadlines in a rural community?

            I must admit that this was a major concern, but we have found that if we work just a little harder we can meet the shipping deadline of next day United Parcel Service pickup by noon of that day.  UPS drops off our deliveries around noon, and picks up our days deliveries as his last stop at about 5:10 P.M.  Unfortunately our Parcel Post Express & Priority, has a one day delay, but again, most manufacturers take 2 or more days to produce a die, and make an order, whereas, we try and do it in the same day as ordered if ordered by 10:00 A.M.

            Our in-bound Auto freight shipments leave something to be desired, but again, we have to work smarter, be more alert to inventory levels, and allow higher levels for safety back up.  We have made special trips of 75 miles to retrieve inventory sitting on the dock of an auto freight warehouse, rather than wait two days for the truck to find its way down to our small rural town. 

            Where there is a will, there is a way, and we’ll always look for that way to satisfy you the customer.

I have looked at your presses and other equipment, and they are certainly not top of the line, faster automatic presses.  How in the world are you going to compete against those people who have this type of equipment?

            We’ll do this the same way that we built up our other gasket manufacturing companies:

1.   We take a bid as if we already have the updated automated equipment, and we make up the time by using management to fill in at night and when employees are taking lunch or other breaks.

2.    We run our operation mean and lean to save operating capital.

3.    We buy automated equipment as we can afford it, and we continue to use management in production and operate mean and lean.

4.    We instill a sense of ownership between our employees and the company that they work for.  We also share a portion of the small profits that we have with our employees depending on performance and quality output of products.

Why would employees want to stay at wages lower than the rest of the country?

            For the same reason, that I bought property and had a home set up here in 1994, before I even sold my business in Seattle, Washington.

·       Plains, Montana has clean air, low crime, great scenic beauty, great hunting and fishing and not a single traffic light in our county.

·       Plains, Montana had homes for sale between $20,000 and $75,000 in 1994.  Since then, unfortunately, it is hard to find a home under $100,000, but most homes top out at less than $200,000, whereas I hear that the average home in the big cities are well over a quarter million dollars.

·      The people are great and caring for one another.

·      The schools for the most part do not have a political agenda to indoctrinate our children and grandchildren.  They still teach values!

·      The number of churches outnumbers the bars by six to one.

Does GOR inc. have the experience for my industry?

            You have to remember that Les and Randy Wood have done engineering and design for the Titan Missile launch site in late 1980’s.  They were involved in solving problems for Boeing Company’s Flying Boat project in the late 1970’s.  They were an almost exclusive supplier for Pac Car Parts for Kenworth trucks in the 1970’s.  They have served the Marine Industry and the High Tech industry for many years.  Every level of government has used the services of Les and Randy Wood over the years.

            But most importantly, Randy and Les Wood recognized that their greatest asset was the service that they gave to industrial supply houses that sold to all of the industries of this nation and overseas.  We shipped directly to our industrial supply house customers without betraying confidentialities, using our customers packing lists.

            This is not always work for us.  We have had numerous experiences helping inventors to engineer and design new products.  As we contribute this time at almost cost, we learn and appreciate the value of entrepreneurship.

What does the future look like for GOR?

            Although we do not want to change the small town atmosphere of Plains, we will always have a “can do” attitude of unlimited growth for our corporation.

This means that if we think that we can make it better, faster and more efficiently, then we may have no choice but to do so, when it comes to some of our inventory items.  We already do this with retort packing.  And when the auto freight company let us down, we picked up raw materials from the factory and delivered finished products over four hundred miles in order to meet the needs of our customer. 

            We have already acquired land outside of town to build a future office, manufacturing and warehouse facility.

            We have contracted to purchase Water Jet cutting equipment, along with upgraded gasket cutting and stripping equipment.

            We live in a hub zone of unemployed and low paid employees, and we hope to have an opportunity to help change that.

            Whereas, auto fright companies only make one or two trips into Plains per week, we plan to create so much business for them in our town, that they will have to eventually increase that to every working day of the week and if they fail us in this regard, we’ll do our own trucking.

Why might I pay more to GOR, inc. on some products?

            Usually, our prices will always be less but on occasion you might pay more for a GOR product for the same reason that I have a set of Viton Windshield wiper blades on my truck going on the third year now.  They cost me almost triple the price, but when the weather gets cold, they do not stick to the windshield, and tear when you turn the wipers on.  They seem to have a longer lasting durability and there is less glare from the smearing of oil from Neoprene, Nitrile or other wipers.

            Please compare apples to apples when comparing prices between GOR, inc. and other gasket manufacturing companies.  We will always try and give you the best material for the type of usage of your products, unless you specifically say different.

            On the other hand, there are occasions that a black Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR) will work just as well as a commonly ordered neoprene rubber.   We may ask what your usage for a product is for, so that we may be able to save you even more money.