Posted on April 19, 2022 by specrubber
An Alabaster, Alabama business, Specification Rubber Products, inc., was recently awarded the 2021 Best Place to Work within the North American Rubber Industry by Rubber News.
This award prompted a visit from Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who toured the facility of Specification Rubber Products on March 21.
Spec Rubber was founded in 1968 and is a subsidiary of AMERICAN Cast Iron Pipe Company, located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is the pre-eminent supplier of rubber gaskets and sealing products to the water industry within the United States.
Since opening in 1968, the business has grown into the current 85,000-square-foot facility, with a plan for expansion due to new product manufacturing that will begin this summer.
The Alabaster plant will produce more than two million rubber components per year. Specification Rubber Products prides itself as an ISO-9001 certified company and provides NSF-61 certified components used in the drinking water industry.
Specification Rubber Products President Steven Smith said Gov. Ivey’s visit spoke volumes to the company for her to come and recognize the work the employees are doing. “It helped make an extraordinary day even more extraordinary,” Smith said.
The celebration began with an overview of Specification Rubber’s operations and products by Marketing and Sales Manager Wesley Helton.
Helton said the company plans to ship more than two million rubber components to its customers in 2022, including the Amarillo Restrained Joint gasket used with American’s ductile iron pipe. The Amarillo, produced in safety yellow, and the Spec Rubber’s signature product, the Barracuda, made in safety orange, are the only colored NSF-61 certified restrained joint gaskets manufactured in the US.
“We are so fortunate to have such great teammates who put their heart and soul into Specification Rubber Products daily,” Helton said. “Without their support and love of this company, we would never have had a chance at such a prestigious award.”
Ivey and others toured Specification Rubber’s manufacturing operations, and the celebration ended as Gov. Ivey spoke to the crowd of employees and guests.
“It is quite an accomplishment to be named the number one manufacturer in the rubber industry in the U.S.,” Ivey said in a release. “Without all of you, we wouldn’t have the components needed to help make water clean and safe.”
The “Best Places to Work” program recognizes and honors companies in the rubber industry for outstanding employee satisfaction.
The rubber industry is defined as companies that manufacture rubber products and suppliers or providers of services for the rubber industry.
“Determining the best places to work involves a two-step process,” a company spokesperson said. “The first step involves an evaluation of participating companies’ workplace policies, practices, and demographics. In the second step, a minimum required participation level of employee anonymous surveys are to be received, which directly assess the experiences and attitudes of individual employees toward their workplace. The combined scores determine the top organizations and the final ranking.”
Specification Rubber Products Customer Service Manager Paige Harkins said the company is unique because of the teammates.
“We have a wonderful group of teammates. We are very proud of our experienced and diverse team here at Spec Rubber,” Harkins said. “We consider ourselves very fortunate to have many devoted teammates, many having more than 25 years with the company. Our most senior teammate has recently celebrated her 45th year with the company.”
For more information about the company, visit Specrubber.com.
