TCP/Reliable keeps cool in a competitive market

New Jersey Business, Jul 01, 2005

Despite difficult economic conditions and a competitive market, TCP/Reliable, Inc., a temperature-control led packaging test, design and manufacturing company in Edison, is actively securing a role in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Founded in 1989, Marketing Manager William Hingle explains, "We started out as a company that conducted testing services for clients to design very specific packages, and a lot of them had to do with renewable plastics." TCP soon expanded to develop its own line of packaging products that both maintain given temperature ranges and protect the contents of clients' shipments in transit.

With its 40 employees, TCP is classified as a small company. Despite this classification, Hingle insists, "One of the things that we do have is a very strong engineering expertise that lends us to take on much larger products than one might think." Based on the needs of the industry and individual client requests for particular types of products, TCP often designs and manufactures products for a specific application before conducting market research to determine the viability of developing a full-line product.

The company's temperature-controlled products range from basic insulated shipping containers, such as Styrofoam coolers, to advanced monitoring devices. "Temperaturesensitive packaging became, by far, the biggest part of what we do, and the reason is the need for these types of packages in the pharmaceutical industry . . . and Central and Northern New Jersey is very heavily pharmaceutical-based," Hingle says.

TCP has developed a line of "phase change" materials, which are utilized in conjunction with the insulating material of the package to control its temperature. "There's quite a bit of design work and engineering that is behind the scenes to maintain your drugs at a 2 to 8 degree Celsius temperature - a popular temperature range - and the phase change materials maintain the products within that range," Hingle explains. In fact, "Phase 5" won the "WorldStar Packaging Award" out of hundreds of entries in 2004.

The company has also developed "time saver" products to serve a similar purpose. "With this prequalified time saver, we've done all the testing in advance so that a product of 'x' size and 'x' weight will maintain a particular temperature for a period of 48 hours or 72 hours," Hingle says.

Through its recent ISO-9000 Certification, TCP has received the international recognition that, according to Hingle, "is like the ticket asked to come to the show, and what you need to be a player with customers and products that are focused like these are."

Since in the state-funded training program and becoming certified, TCP has hired new employees in areas of engineering, management, and production and now serves several international businesses every week.

The market, in terms of company sales and growth, has been receptive to TCP products. "We've experienced 20 percent growth last year from the year prior to that, and this year we're on the same type of curve," Hingle says. He stresses the importance of constantly having to come out with new products and plan years in advance to maintain success.

TCP manufactures its products for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, and has also expanded its product line to target the food and electronics industries. "As the age of the population grows older, it becomes incumbent upon pharmaceutical companies to be able to get these drugs to market and into the people's hands as cost-effectively as possible, and to do so in a way that maintains their effectiveness ... and we represent a big portion of making sure that happens," Hingle says. The company's test findings and reports are often utilized in the healthcare industry to validate internal procedures and packaging solutions.

Ultimately, TCP is just one company that is experiencing success regardless of poor economic conditions or competing markets. Hingle agrees, "Economically, all over, it's been very tough, so it's good for people to hear about successes ... and this company is representative of that."

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