Ep. 39 Joe Pampush, V-P of Sales for ShieldMark Inc. / Mighty Line

Greetings everyone. This is Dave with Mighty Line Minute. And today I've got my very best and most important Vice-President of Sales for ShieldMark here with us. We're excited to have you here, Joe. Thanks for joining the show. I'm going to ask you a few questions about Mighty Line. You know a lot better than I do, you’ve been here a lot longer. Tell me, what excites you about this company, and what's so special about ShieldMark and Mighty Line? 

Well, Dave, It's been a pleasure to work with you, and you joining the team this year. To answer your questions, a couple of things that are very unique about Mighty Line. We stand out because we're in industrial floor tape in the market, and we have a couple of patents on the product. Some great qualities of Mighty Line is, as you know, the durability and the strength of it. The wide range of abilities that you can use it. And the widths, colors, signs, the many different 5S shapes that end users can add during their 5S challenges. So, there's a lot of unique stuff, and we have a lot of unique customers, and we basically only go through distribution. So, customers like your large catalog companies like the Ulines, Grangers, Fastenals of the world, but we also supply to those local mom and pop shops, so they can supply those end-users in their own rural communities. 

You "cover the earth with tape" is what I see. Also with color, I've been impressed with the amount of colors. Those who've had a chance to see the Safety Color Guide from Mighty Line, it’s quite extensive in its scope. The designs, the uniqueness of the tape. What makes the tape so special that's unique to Mighty Line? 

Well, we have two different patents on it. I think a third's coming on the way. But, the wide range of colors, the wide range of shapes and sizes that we can do, and we really do a customization of your unique opportunities in the 5S challenging. As you know, as the Safety Director in your career, OSHA and 5S'ing warehouses for just the safety portion of it is very popular, and it's growing. 

Yeah, it's absolutely essential. And I've been impressed coming here, knowing that I'm working within a safety organization, because everything that you do has an eye out for the warehouse, the industrial occupancy that needs these enhancements in their workplace. And every facility I've ever been involved in uses something similar to this to make sure that their employees are knowledgeable, they're educated, and to your point about 5S, absolutely essential. 

Yes. And, we're constantly innovating. Our founder, Tom Goecke invented the product in 2003. Our brand Mighty Line in 2006. And it really gave us an innovating thinking company just from the start. He invented this product. He saw the need for demarcations in the warehouse. He saw the need that painting took too long. There was dry time. There were other vapors that come along with painting, and our Mighty Line can be applied easily, quickly, and over time, so your labor costs will be down. 

I've noticed just in the warehouses that I've seen over the last few years, that the extensive use of floor tape is far beyond what I understood it to be 10, 20, 30 years ago. It seems that there's been a real conversion. Those who've been using paint as striping have kind of come around and seen that the flexibility needed in the warehouse is absolutely critical. And not only that, but the importance of the design of the floor tape so that it holds up to traffic, and is able to stay down for quite a period of time. 

Correct, yeah. And like I said, we have all these floor signs. Like here is a very favorite product of ours. We get into 5S shapes, so we have smaller die-cut angles, T's as what we call 'em, to help with location markers, help with pallet location, machinery equipment. So, yes, we do have the demarcation of safety lines for forklift, pedestrian traffic, but he gets it even deeper when you want to talk about, efficiency of, is your raw materials getting low, and you can have a specific area like that. So, 5S'ing is really a very, very powerful tool for every warehouse. And we're just one of those tools that can help with that. 

One thing I've seen here is that Mighty Line is in this constant, I'll call it a continuous improvement mode, trying to look at their products, understand their coefficients of friction, their ability to meet ASTM E303, their color safety standards, their striping correlation with what the hazards are in the workplace. And even some of the tapes now that are being sought for people with disabilities, those who are visually impaired. What developments are underway in that area? 

Yeah. So, Dave, we had customer of ours working with a larger end-user and they needed a floor-marking tool that can help with low-vision, impaired employees. As you mentioned, we got this tape, we call our Mighty Line Tac tape. And it helps with that vibration that they can feel in their canes or their hands, or even their feet. We got it tested for ASTM low slip-resistant, and it came back passing grade, and it's been a very unique niche opportunity of ours. 

Yes. And the signs that you mentioned, I noticed that there seems to be quite a lot of attention to that. I know some retailers have had to deal with egress issues with OSHA. With compliance, making sure that employees know where exits are, where fire extinguishers are. 

Yes, so our floor signs actually were our highest growing product for the past two years. And we continually see it growing and growing. As you mentioned, the STOP signs, the DO NOT BLOCK ELECTRICAL PANEL, DO NOT BLOCK FIRE EXTINGUISHER are our most popular. As you can see. But we do a lot of customization. So, if there are customers out there that need a unique verbiage, we can do that. And I think that's the reason why we are seeing so much growth, is because our customers know that we have the unique opportunity to not only have our stock signs, but can do unique projects, to be efficient in the warehouse. 

So, I noticed too, that internationally, our business seems to be accelerating. Does that mean that we can meet needs where there's signage that needs to be in different languages as well? 

Yeah. We can do custom languages if we need to. We are growing internationally. It has been growing pretty rapidly. It's not just based on our product, it's really our brand. Mighty Line really isn't just a United States brand anymore. Mighty Line is growing internationally, it's been quite awesome to see. 

I've been excited to see some of the things that come from users of products, particularly internationally. We get some great testimonials done on video. What are they saying in those testimonials? 

Yeah, so we do have a customer that did a little video that I'm sure we can share. They're basically saying how easy it's applied, how great it looks, and the differentiation of colors and shapes they can use, for their warehouse, for their employees, and just their whole workflow. So, everything just ties in together for their 5S project. And they use Mighty Line. 

So, I suspect we're operating in a number of different countries from what I'm seeing. 

Correct. Around the world, yes. 

Awesome. So, what is in development, or what's something that you're able to talk about that's new and exciting, beyond what we've gotten to today? Is there anything we can look forward to from a technology standpoint? 

Yes. A couple of years ago, we developed a Mighty Line applicator. It's very unique to our rolls with tape, where it is able to apply pressure to the tape and take off that backing as it's being laid down. Now, since we've been going to so many shows, MODEX and ProMat in particular, there was a lot of movement to robotics. We want to make sure that we can be innovative as a company, moving forward with the innovation of other companies. So we're developing a Mighty Liner Robot, almost like a Roomba in the sense. We have displayed prototypes at the latest MODEX show, and at the latest ASSP show. MODEX in Atlanta and ASSP was in Denver, and we had a prototype. Let's call her “MIGHTY BOT” right now! Goal of it is to be able to apply tape in a straight line, with a beacon. And the labor force can start working on other lines and prep work while that tape is being laid down. 

Awesome. It sounds to me like it's a "Roomba on steroids" (correct)!? Is that a good analogy (Yes)? Well, that's exciting. I know there's some work to do on that. It's a development that's currently underway. And anyone who's had the opportunity to see any of the videos or be at the shows has certainly been excited by that. Joe, anything else that you'd like to add today to our Mighty Line Minute? We like to talk about our own products. We often talk about what other people are doing. We're excited about our customers. But I'll let you have the last word here. 

Yeah, so we're very excited with our future, we have a great team here. Not only do we have a great product, it's a premium product in the floor marking game, but, we have a great customer service team here. So, you can call us, get us on the phone. We will talk to ya. We'll help you out with samples. We will help you out with any floor-prepping questions that you might have. Just to name a few, like Alec Goecke our CEO, Shannon Stamper, Keith Perhacs, they do a great job here in the office. And if you ever need to talk to someone, please give us a call, or shoot us an email. We're happy to help you. 

They're doing an awesome job, because from what I'm seeing from customers’ reactions, and their excitement about working here at ShieldMark and Mighty Line, it's second-to-none! So thank you, Joe, for taking time with us today on the Mighty Line Minute. And for those out there who need to learn more, Joe, where can they go? 

We're at MightyLineTape.com. And you also call us at (440) 895-9980. Or Info@MightyLineTape.com and we'll be happy to help you out. Happy getting in touch with some of our distributor lists. Anything you need. We'll take care of you! 

Great, Joe, hey, thank you again today. It's nice to be working here next to you as well. And for those out there, take a look at the website, and stay in touch here at ShieldMark / Mighty Line. Take care. And have a safe day!