Inc. magazine ranked Dr. Shrink, Inc. on its seventh annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy, America’s independent entrepreneurs. Dr. Shrink, Inc. joins Fuhu, LivingSocial, Edible Arrangements, CDW and Lifelock, among other prominent brands.
“We are thrilled to be on the INC 5000 list for the third year in a row,” said Mike Stenberg, Dr. Shrink president. “Dr. Shrink works extremely hard to provide our customers and markets with the highest quality shrink wrap, accessories and service. We’re very appreciative to be acknowledged and rewarded for that.”
In a stagnant economic environment, median growth rate of 2013 Inc. 500|5000 companies is an impressive 142%. The companies on this year’s list report having created over 520,000 jobs in the past three years, and aggregate revenue among the honorees reached $241 billion. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/5000.
“Not all the companies in the Inc. 500 | 5000 are in glamorous industries, but in their fields they are as famous as household name companies simply by virtue of being great at what they do. They are the hidden champions of job growth and innovation, the real muscle of the American economy,” says Inc. editor Eric Schurenberg.
The 2013 Inc. 500|5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2009 to 2012. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2009. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent, not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies, as of December 31, 2012.
Category: Shrink
Bay Area Recycling for Charity Greening Northern Michigan
Andy Gale can find a use for just about anything. Used fryer oil? Convert that into biodiesel fuel, and that’s just the beginning.
Gale is the founder of Bay Area Recycling for Charities (BARC), a nonprofit organization whose net profits are donated to local charities. The company, which operates in Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Antrim, Leelanau, Benzie, and Manistee counties, was founded by Gale in 2008. Gale, who moved from Chicago to Traverse City in 2008, had little knowledge about recycling, but was passionate about environmental sustainability.
“I didn’t know anything about recycling but I wanted to learn more about it,” says Gale. “And I wanted to be a better recycling and so I started the organization to learn about how it works, and how it functions, and what markets are there, and how those systems all work together.”
What started as a small operation with Gale driving a pickup truck and collecting recycled material from businesses and residences has quickly grew into an operation employing ten people with a fast-growing line of new products and services.
As business grew, Gale had to hire more drivers to meet the demand for collecting recycled material. Once collected, the recycling is taken to a processing plant in Maple City; there, materials are sorted and then sold to brokers. According to Gale, BARC processes fifteen tons of cardboard, 3-6 tons of compost, 2-4 tons of recycling, and one ton of e-waste each week.
Soon BARC began offering a composting service.
“It involves carbon and nitrogen,” says Jordan Byron, who is manager of products and promotions at BARC. “The carbon comes from leaves, branches, and wood chips, so we started picking up yard waste from residents. The nitrogen comes from food, so we pick up food waste from Oryana, Great Wolf Lodge, the Little Fleet, and other places. You combine that and you keep turning it, and pretty soon within 200 days you’ve got some soil.”
Gale had more ideas for making sustainability a marketable enterprise, so he forayed into selling compostable plates and silverware, a venture that’s paying off already.
“For just the month of June this year we did a little over twenty five thousand dollars in compostable sales, and July is on its way to being somewhere between thirty and thirty five thousand,” says Byron.
Other new products involve converting used fryer oil into biodiesel fuel, and compostable product packaging made from mycelium, or mushroom “roots.”
“Say your new Vizio TV comes and you open it up, and take off all the packaging. That packaging, you can just throw that right out in your front yard and three days later it’s nothing. It’s back into the soil,” Byron says.
BARC has also expanded into doing zero-waste events.
“First was Film Fest. Andy probably started with that about three years ago. [Now we] handle the whole waste stream so that there’s virtually no trash and it will all be composted and recycled,’” says Byron.
BARC has done twelve zero-waste weddings this summer, and 2013 was the first year the company handled waste from the National Cherry Festival.
“In years past, that eight day event generated around 30 to 33 tons of pure landfill waste and so we came in and said, ‘well do it; we’re going to start changing the culture.’
Now Gale and BARC are looking into a social project to make Traverse City the “greenest” city in Michigan by 2020 — something he believes is attainable.
“We’re trying to change the culture and it’s pretty easy in this town to do that. Traverse City is like a mini Portland or Burlington or Seattle; the culture that is now coming into town is much younger, much more vibrant.”
Andy and BARC have worked with Dr. Shrink, Inc. for four years with their Recycling Run program. This program is an inexpensive way to recycle shrink wrap covers that come off in the spring and summer months. For more information, please visit www.recycling-run.com.
Sourced from: The Ticker News, Jack Hagen
Publish Date: August 3, 2013
NEW SHRINK WRAP DESIGNED TO PROTECT ALL METALS (Multimetal ICT Film)
Engines, accessories, spare parts and other metal equipment are susceptible to rust and corrosion even when well-protected. Dr. Shrink’s new Multimetal ICT Film provides cost-effective and versatile defense against corrosion damage on ferrous and non-ferrous metals in typical shipping and storage conditions.
The new Multimetal ICT Film is an easy-to-use protective film containing proven corrosion inhibiting technology. It’s available in 20′ x 100′, 4 mil sheets.
The film is intended to be installed as a base layer underneath Dr. Shrink’s premium shrink wrap. This combination ensures a durable, weatherproof storage and transportation cover, providing corrosion prevention. If properly packaged and stored, this non-toxic, recyclable ICT film can protect metals for up to five years.
3rd Annual Benefit Golf Outing for Love INC of Manistee
Golf for charity again this year! Mark your calendars for August 23, 2013—our 3rd Annual Benefit Golf Outing for LOVE Inc of Manistee, MI. Registration for the outing is open— if you register before August 9th, you will receive our Early Bird special of $10 off your registration fee. The cost is $75 for Manistee Golf & Country Club members and $85 for non-members.
If you are coming from out of town, we have set aside a limited number of hotel rooms at the Little River Casino & Resort and the Manistee Inn & Marina for your convenience. These rooms will only be held until July 26th, so please make sure to book before then. Please email travis@dr-shrink.com or call 800-968-5147 for more information to register for the event or to inquire about lodging.
To all of our Dr. Shrink customers—you don’t want to miss this! We are giving one lucky customer a spot on the Dr.’s golf team this year! If you place an order of over $2,500 between July 1st to July 12th you are automatically entered into the drawing. The winner will be selected at random and will be given a $500 travel credit to come to beautiful Manistee, MI which will also include a paid-entry onto Mike’s golf team at the historic Manistee Golf & Country Club.
**Travel credit will be used for flight, hotel, car rental, etc. Good luck and we look forward to seeing you for a great time of golf—all for charity!!!
Take a look here for pictures of the beautiful course– right on Lake Michigan!
DR. SHRINK PRESIDENT NAMED FINALIST FOR ERNST & YOUNG AWARD
Premium international shrink wrap supplier, Dr. Shrink, Inc. is proud that its president/CEO/founder Michael Stenberg is a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2013 Award in Michigan and Northwest Ohio. The award recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Award recipients will be named at a black-tie gala this Thursday, June 20 at the MGM Grand, Detroit.
Dr. Shrink, Inc. is a small company that was started by Michael and his wife Jill Stenberg in Manistee, Michigan in April of 1992. They had a related shrink wrap installation business in Traverse City, Michigan that they started in 1986. They sold that in early 1992 after seeing a niche in distribution of shrink wrapping products rather than installation. Dr. Shrink, Inc. has grown into a full circle company that offers the highest quality shrink wrap and installation accessories on the market, selling its products to over 80 countries worldwide. Dr. Shrink, Inc. recently celebrated 21 years in business and is still located in Manistee.
Now in its 27th year, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Program has honored the inspirational leadership of such entrepreneurs as Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Michael Dell of Dell Inc., Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines, Fred Smith of FedEx, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Richard Schulze of Best Buy, Andrew Mason of Groupon, Mindy Grossman of HSN, Inc., and Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn. Local award recipients include Florine Mark of the WW Group, Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans and Art Van Elslander of Art Van Furniture.
Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are nationally sponsored in the United States by SAP America and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In Michigan and Northwest Ohio, local sponsors include RBS Citizens/Charter One Bank, Foley & Lardner, Steelcase/Turnstone, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Tanner Friedman, Grand Valley State University Seidman College of Business, New Paradigm Promotional Marketing, Crain’s Detroit Business and WJR News/Talk 760.
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The unique award makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential, and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 140 cities in more than 50 countries.
Dr. Shrink will post pictures of the gala on their Facebook page. Congratulations to Mike & Jill!
Shrink Wrap "Down Under" in Australia
Our customers never cease to amaze us with their shrink wrap stories and applications. We recently had a unique testimonial of our products being used in South Australia. Our Australia distributor All Marine Spares sent us the following note that we wanted to share:
“Thought I should send you a picture of Max’s trailer, which was towed behind his brother’s bus for over 4,000 km (almost 2,500 miles). As you will see from the condition of the trailer & bus, the road conditions were not all good. The object of this exercise was for Max to get the Australian speed record for a 175cc, 25 year old, near standard motorcycle over 80 mph, and he achieved 87.6 mph. Yes, Max is a very happy camper!
The event was held in central South Australia, on a dry, salt lake bed. One major problem was how to get the motorcycle to the salt lake without getting it covered in the very fine dust on the hundreds of km of outback dirt roads. Being very inventive, Max and “Hot Gun Hurlstone” (Brett Hurlstone of All Marine Spares) set about using Dr. Shrink shrink wrap to wrap the trailer. The motorcycle got to the lake and back with no dust issue at all, furthermore the shrink wrap was totally intact at the end of the journey. What a product!!”
Thank you to Leigh Francis for sending us this shrink wrap application story. If you recently worked on a unique shrink wrap job, please email marketing@dr-shrink.com — we enjoy hearing from you and seeing what our customers & installers are up to!
2012 Year in Review
2012 was a great year for Dr. Shrink and was also the year of our 20th anniversary. We would like to take some time to highlight various happenings over the last year. We had the pleasure of working with countless customers, getting all of their shrink wrap needs taken care of throughout the year. Whether you were working with Dr. Shrink for the first, tenth, or maybe even your 20th season; we greatly appreciate the opportunity to work with you and be your premium shrink wrap supplier. We would not be where we are today without each and every one of the customers; you are the most important part of our company. For that, we would like to say thank you for working with Dr. Shrink.
Offering exceptional customer service and prompt shipping are two of the biggest factors that make Dr. Shrink stand out among the crowd. The only way that this goal can be fulfilled is to have an exceptional team. Dr. Shrink continued to bring some new faces onto the team in 2012. We welcomed Josh Purgiel to our warehouse staff and Brooke Skiera to our customer service team. They have been excellent additions to the Dr. Shrink family!
2012 started out in a big way with Dr. Shrink celebrating 20 years in business! We’ve made it a very long way and none of which could be possible without the support we’ve received from each and every customer. To celebrate this huge milestone, Dr. Shrink had discounts and giveaways throughout the entire month of April (the official month for Dr. Shrink’s anniversary), to show appreciation to all of our customers for helping make this achievement. To read more about Dr. Shrink’s beginnings and the stepping stones that got us to where we are today, click here.
To continue serving our customers with the best products and timely shipping, Dr. Shrink added an expansion onto our warehouse. Construction was started in early spring to add an additional 12,000 square feet of storage space to ensure that we have everything in stock for immediate shipment. With the construction completed in August, the warehouse staff had plenty of extra space to keep more stock of the shrink wrap and accessories that our customers needed for the upcoming fall season. Having our new warehouse expansion has been a huge help in our overall productivity and efficiency.
We saw the return of our annual Recycling Run in the spring. In 2012, we extended our reach into other states and added pick-ups in Illinois and Wisconsin. Also new for the Recycling Run in 2012 was an extension of pick-up dates for those who weren’t quite ready to have an early spring pick-up. Customers were able to select a pick-up week starting in April and going all the way through August. We are very grateful to everyone who participated in the recycling effort and hope that you will continue to help do your part in making sure this premium material is properly recycled.
Dr. Shrink was very excited and proud to be nominated and awarded the honor as one of the Michigan 50 Companies to Watch for 2012! It was a rigorous application process and out of 320 nominations, Dr. Shrink along with 49 other companies received the distinction to be recognized as a Michigan 50. Mike, Ryan, Melissa, Angela, and Travis attended the award ceremony in Lansing, MI and Mike went up on stage to be recognized and accepted the award as CEO and Founder of the company. We couldn’t have gotten this far without the support from our wonderful staff and amazing customers. Thank you to everyone who helped play a part in making this achievement possible!
We also received the honor of being on the Inc. Magazine, Inc. 5000 List for a second year in a row! This list highlights the top 5000 privately owned companies in the United States. Thousands of applications are received each year and only the top 5000 make it. It is an honor to be recognized as a top privately owned company in the entire country! In 2012, Dr. Shrink improved its ranking moving from 4,344 in 2011, to 3,921 in 2012. We hope to increase our ranking once again by applying for the 2013 Inc. 5000 list.
Dr. Shrink hosted our Second Annual Benefit Golf Scramble for Love INC of Manistee. In 2012 we saw some new faces participating and some new scenery as well. Golfers took to 18 holes at the Manistee Golf and Country Club, located right alongside beautiful Lake Michigan. Along with bigger and better prizes also came a significant increase in money raised. The 2011 event raised $3,700 and in 2012 we raised an even $5,000 for Love INC. A great time was had by all and we are already planning to have another fantastic charity event here in 2013.
As many of you already know, Dr. Shrink hosts a quarterly shrink wrap training course known as ShrinkWrap U at our facility in Manistee, MI. For the second year in a row, ShrinkWrap U traveled to the 2012 International Boat Builders Expo (IBEX)! While exhibiting at IBEX, Dr. Shrink hosted a special SWU class exclusively for IBEX attendees in Louisville, KY. ShrinkWrap U also went international for the second year making a visit to Gothenburg, Sweden which was hosted by Hans Lundberg (or better known as “The Swedish Shrink Master”), of Hansen Marine.
2012 was a great year for Dr. Shrink with many exciting things that happened. We are pushing ahead in 2013 with new goals and objectives to strive for. Please remember to check out our Facebook, Twitter, blogs and monthly newsletters to stay informed and up-to-date with all of our latest news and happenings. Thank you all for being a part of Dr. Shrink and we are excited to share 2013 with you!
Shrink Wrap Protects Boats During Hurricane Sandy
It is amazing what Mother Nature can do even on the edge of a storm. Bob Abbott saw the effects of Hurricane Sandy first hand in Cleveland, OH. He recently wrote a great testimonial and sent in photos that we would like to share:
“I just thought I would tell you how amazing shrink wrap is after seeing the aftermath of Sandy. We are in Cleveland, Ohio, on Lake Erie. Even though we didn’t get hit directly by Sandy we experienced 60 mph winds with a peak hitting 78 mph and had two marinas nearly wiped out. I shrink wrapped my boat and a friend’s boat. They are stored in a parking lot at a local Yacht Club with a marina right nearby. Here are a few pictures I took yesterday. The first 5 are of our Yacht Club, the others are from the marina next to us. I pointed out with arrows the two boats that I shrink wrapped. Shrink wrap, the only way to store outdoors.”
Click here to see Bob’s amazing photos. Feel free to send in any photos you may have of shrink wrapped objects after a storm!
Prepare Your Shrink Wrap Heat Tool for the Fall
The Fall season will soon be here and we want you to use this discount to help prepare for your upcoming shrink wrap jobs! We know your propane fired heat tool is a high priority item on your preparation check list. Make sure they are all in proper working condition before you start booking jobs. Starting now until September 15th, 2012 we would like to offer you 10% off ALL heat tool repair parts. *You must mention the 10% discount over the phone in order to receive it*
Dr. Shrink has a full time heat tool repair technician on staff that can service most heat tools on the market today. If you are a “Do-It-Yourselfer” and would like to repair your own heat tool, we offer excellent troubleshooting and/or general repair advice over the phone. If you have any repair questions, please call our Heat Tool Technician, Evan Jensen at (800) 968-5147.
If you would like us to repair your heat tool for you, please send it to the address below:
Dr. Shrink, Inc.
Attn: Heat Tool Repair
315 Washington St.
Manistee, MI 49660
We advise you to call us prior to sending your heat tool in for repair. This will help to accommodate our intake process and the time it takes for repair. Once we analyze your heat tool, we will call you with a quote on parts & labor.
Dr. Shrink is an authorized repair facility for all Shrinkfast heat tools. Watch this video below of Evan installing a Shrinkfast 998 Rebuild Kit.
From Russia With Love
Today Dr. Shrink was the host to Roman and Alexey from FastPack Russia. Roman and Alexey traveled from Saint Petersburg, Russia to New York City. They then drove 14 hours from New York to come visit the Dr. Shrink staff and tour our office and warehouse here in Manistee, MI. Above is a picture of Mike with Alexey (Left) and Roman (Right), while they were taking the tour of our facility.
FastPack has been working with Dr. Shrink since late 2010 and have grown significantly over the last 2 years. They have been very proactive with their sales approach by hosting shrink wrapping demonstrations and making trips out to visit 3 or 4 factories a week all over Russia. We are very happy to be working with Roman and Alexey, and are looking forward to helping them continue to grow even more as the years go on!
