Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Barlow.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Scott. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
The downturn in the economy in 2007 resulted in the loss of savings and jobs for many. At that time, I was working for a worldwide automation company that decided to eliminate the division for which I worked. Therefore, I was left with making a decision as to whether to seek another job or follow my dream of starting my own company. At the time, I had one son in college and my other was a senior in high school, which caused my wife to ask me “Is now the right time?”.
Integrated Control Technologies (ICT) was formed on February 4, 2008. In the beginning, ICT was a high-tech electrical distributor with value-added services. Although as time progressed, our company migrated to providing products and services to the Plastics Industry.
In 2009, I wrote an article that was published by the Society of Plastic Engineers regarding energy savings when converting a DC motor to an AC motor on an extruder. The article resulted in conversations with companies throughout the country on helping them determine their return on investment on such a conversion. Making such a change is expensive and many companies decided to wait for a catastrophic event such as a drive or motor failure to perform a conversion.
Unfortunately, AC extruder drive and motor packages have a lead time of 6-8 weeks, making it impractical for the conversion because of the extended downtime. It was at this time that I recognized a need in the industry to develop an AC Extruder Drive and Motor package that would be available for shipment in 24 hours. This resulted in the development of the ACPAK, which is a pre-engineered extruder drive package, which began our transition from a high-tech electrical distributor to an Original Equipment Manufacturer. Not long afterwards, we developed an extruder control system known as the TEMPCOM.
Our company has been featured in several magazines within the plastics industry and many of our customers are multi-billion dollar companies with locations around the world.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
We lost money the first year and as many of us know, the economy was not strong in 2008. I was not unlike many business owners in that I risked it all. All of my retirement, all of my savings, I laid it all out there. I paid myself half salary-that year and we lived very frugal.
Although I struggled, I never looked back wishing I had done something else. This was my passion and my dream. I had been successful throughout my career and I knew that I could do it. We doubled in business in 2009 and every year since has been a growth year.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Integrated Control Technologies story. Tell us more about the business.
Integrated Control Technologies is an after-market leader in extruder upgrades in the plastics industry. Our market is a single vertical in the US where we target aging extruder control systems for upgrades with our pre-engineered solutions. The TEMPCOM is a PLC/HMI system that is intuitive, having self-diagnostics and features typically found only on high-end extruder control systems. Our ACPAK extruder drive is kitted up to 500HP and can be assembled and shipped in as little as 24 hours!
I chose to specialize in an industry and to be the best at something as opposed to being pretty-good at several things. This allows us to build on our solutions and provides the customer with the value and confidence that we understand and know their process. This expertise allows the customer to upgrade his extruder economically and have the same features that he would obtain if he purchased a new extruder.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t believe in luck. If I did, I would have won the lottery. There is a saying that success happens when hard-work and opportunity meet. Yet it is much more than that! You must be willing to take the risk and have a vision for your company. People follow a vision if they can see themselves in it. Vision comes from belief. Belief fosters confidence and confidence fosters determination which all lead to success. Yes, some people have been lucky, but mostly success is earned!
Contact Info:
- Address: 440 Wrangler Drive, Suite 100
Coppell, TX 75019 - Website: www.integratedcontroltech.com
- Phone: 972-906-7445
- Email: sbarlow@integratedcontroltech.com
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