In a bad economy like the current one, when sales are in a long-term rut, sometimes a company has to find a new revenue stream.

R&B Plastics Machinery LLC of Saline did just that.

R&B manufactures machines that are used to form plastic into various shapes. Its customers are companies that use the plastic to create such items as juice bottles, milk containers, shower stalls, vinyl siding, gutters, and under-the-hood auto-industry components.

And with so many companies taking it on the chin during the current recession, R&B found that the demand for its new machines fell off. So, the company shifted more of its attention to the upgrading and re-building of existing plastic-forming machinery. To that end, R&B created a "rebuilding & modernization" unit.

“We already had people working on that line of business, but it was non-structured,” said Al Hodge, who was named company president in February, after joining the firm a year ago. “But by creating a new unit, it gave our efforts on that front more structure and more of a direct purpose.”

As a result, R&B’s total revenues have increased by about 30 percent in the last two years, said Hodge. He declined to give actual revenue numbers, explaining that R&B’s parent company, Talon Group of Detroit, doesn’t release that information.

That 30 percent increase over a two-year period came after a dismal stretch, in 2007-08, where total revenues plummeted about 50 percent, said Hodge.

“Companies just weren’t buying new machines, because of their financial situation.”

Most of the plastic-forming machines manufactured by R&B are blow molders, and they come in various incarnations, with names and descriptions that may sound arcane to anyone who is not in the plastic-forming industry -- mechanical wheel molders, rotary-indexing wheel machines, reciprocating blow molders, injection-blow molders and trimmers / deflashers.

Additionally, R&B began manufacturing a new equipment line about a year ago - MAX single-screw extruders, which are used to make products like pipe, tubing, hose, and rolled-sheet plastic for various end-use markets.

According to the most recent data, provided by Plastics News, a trade publication covering the plastics industry, there were 90 blow-molding machines sold in the U.S. in 2008. The total value of those sales were $78.8 million, said the magazine.

"Those are expensive machines,” said Plastics News managing editor Don Loepp. “Some sell for under $1 million, but many are priced at over $1 million."

Meanwhile, 863 extruders were sold in the U.S. in ’08, said the magazine, for a total revenue of $134.5 million.

“R&B isn’t the number one player in the blow-molding and extrusion markets - there are some that are bigger, but in that segment, they’re still a pretty big, well-known company,” said Loepp.

Presently, new-machine sales are “perking up somewhat” but won’t return to previous levels for another two or three years, predicts Hodge.

R&B added about a half-dozen new employees when it formed the new Rebuilding / Modernization unit, said Hodge. "Some engineers, a project manager and some specialty people in the assembly areas.”

Presently, the company employs 47 people, and its Saline manufacturing facility located east of downtown on Woodland Drive, is about 50,000 square feet, said Hodge.

R&B anticipates that revenues will increase another 20 to 25 percent this year, due to its continued focus on re-building and modernizing older machines and a plan to expand its sales distribution efforts.

Hodge said his recent move up to company president was planned when he was hired a year ago.

 “It was part of a plan that involved my predecessor moving up to another position at the parent company,” explains Hodge, who, before his promotion, was R&B’s vice president of sales. He has degrees in electrical engineering and international business, plus an MBA.

R&B’s assembly workers get “a lot of training” on the job after joining the company, due to the very specific nature of the machinery that R&B manufactures.

 “But they already have to have a pretty high aptitude when it comes to mechanical or electrical work,” said Hodge. “We love to hire the farm boys, because they know how to take equipment apart and put it back together.”

Kevin Ransom is a Metro Detroit freelance writer.