Conair's Ernie Preiato finds stability over 50-year career

By Bruce Geiselman

Ernie Preiato, 72, has worked in the plastics industry for 50 years and says he still isn’t ready for retirement.

Even more impressive than his longevity in the industry is the fact he has worked, basically, for the same company throughout his career. After graduating in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in business from Long Island University, he landed a sales job with Gatto Machinery Development Corp., which was purchased in 1988 by Conair Group. Since 1995, he has held the position of VP of extrusion sales at Conair Group. 

Preiato recently reduced his hours to part-time, and, while he hasn’t set a date, is considering retiring into a consulting role next year and spending more time on his hobbies, which include golf, hiking, woodworking and fishing.

While Conair is based in Cranberry Township, Pa., and its extrusion division is headquartered in Pinconning, Mich., Preiato lives in Long Island, N.Y., and said he “was ahead of the curve when it comes to working remote.”

Conair’s extrusion division manufactures products including vacuum sizing equipment, cooling tanks, pullers, cutters and saws, coilers, takeaway conveyors and dump tables.

Preiato discussed his career, the advancements he’s witnessed and his future with Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing Senior Reporter Bruce Geiselman.

What was your first job out of college?

I worked for a company called Gatto Machinery Development Corp. as a sales trainee. Conair purchased them in 1988. That’s how I came onboard at Conair.

Gatto made downstream extrusion equipment. At the time, Conair was looking to expand into extrusion, and they thought the best way to do that was by acquiring a company that was already in extrusion, which was Gatto.

I’ve essentially only worked for one company, but it was like I changed jobs. What I mean by that is, Gatto was a family-run company – a husband and wife. When Conair acquired us and I went to work for Conair, it was like a whole other job. It was a different world – a corporate world. It was a good career move for me at the time.

We went from a husband and wife to where you had profit and loss statements; you had forecasts you had to submit. It was more of a corporate world than a family-run business.

How were you first exposed to the plastics industry?

It sounds corny, but it was the movie “The Graduate,” when [Ben, portrayed by Dustin Hoffman] was out by the pool, and [Mr. McGuire, portrayed by Walter Brooke] said “Plastics.” It did register in my mind. When I got out of college, believe it or not, I still had that in my mind as being a good industry to get into.

How did you choose Gatto Machinery?

There was not an abundance of jobs for college graduates in 1971. That was X number of years after the baby boomers, and jobs were hard to come by. This one was probably lower than my sights, since I would only be a sales trainee, but, I said, you’ve got to start someplace and even if I work there a couple of years and then move on, it's a good start. That’s how I ended up taking it.

How did you go from a sales trainee to VP of extrusion sales?

What I didn’t realize when I took the job was it would be almost eight months before I actually became a sales trainee. In other words, I started by building equipment. I built tanks for one month. I built pullers for another month. I had to build each of these machines before I could become a sales trainee. Then, the last month was in our development lab, where we had extrusion lines. I used to come home dirty, and my wife says, “What kind job do you have?” What I’m saying is, it was different back then. Today, you get two weeks of training and go sell. It was a different world in the earlier days.

So, once the training was over, I became an inside salesman. Then I was a sales manager, and then VP of sales. It was all through the various roles of sales.

Did having experience on the manufacturing floor help you sell equipment?

Yes, when you went out to sell a vacuum tank, you knew what you were selling.

One other thing, in the early days, the company was growing rapidly, and if you sold it, you were expected to start it up. In other words, when you sold an extrusion line, you had to go out and start it up for the customer. After a few years, I was pretty knowledgeable in extrusion. Eventually, as the company grew, we added service people who handled startup.

What have been your responsibilities as VP of extrusion sales with Conair?

I’ll tell you my career path. Conair acquired Gatto in 1988, I was made VP of sales Conair-Gatto, and soon after was made division president. The manufacturing facility stayed in New York.

When they moved the [extrusion division] to Michigan in 1995, I stayed in New York. I was ahead of the curve when it comes to working remote. I went from being president of the Conair-Gatto division to being VP of extrusion sales for Conair. I soon learned that being VP of sales is not only just selling; it’s also application engineering and determining what a customer needs for his application, quoting the equipment and managing other salesmen.

What have you found most rewarding about your tenure at Conair?

I would say working for a company that believes in its customers and employees. That’s what’s made Conair a success. That’s what makes people stay with them. They put those two values above the brick and mortar.

What has been your greatest accomplishment during your career?

Probably moving the business from New York to Michigan. That was a challenge.

Basically, you had to close the division – I was division president at the time – close one plant and open another one almost a thousand miles away. You had to move all that technology to Michigan, hire new people and keep customers happy, keep deliveries flowing. I’m proud of the fact that it was very successful.

What are some of Conair’s most important milestones?

Their ability to identify a market need and then either revise or design a product for that market. On the extrusion side, one of the biggest developments was the Precision Automatic Vacuum Control (PAVC+) vacuum-cooling/sizing tank, which digitally controlled vacuum levels for increased control. More recently, we introduced the MedLine, a first-of-its-kind family of equipment tailored to the needs of the medical industry, and just a couple of years ago, we introduced a strapping coiler [a coil strapping system]. But Conair also pioneered other products that benefited extruders while not being exclusively for extrusion. They included the Carousel wheel dryer, FLX control and TrueBlend [gravimetric blenders].

What trends are you seeing now in the plastics industry, especially in North America?

The trend I see is, as the plastics processors have come back from the pandemic, they’re not staffed to handle the growth. As a result, they are relying more heavily on their equipment suppliers to do more of their engineering for them. It’s companies like Conair, which have that ability, that are successful right now during the rebound from the pandemic.

Beyond that, the trends I see are things like Industry 4.0 and the Conair solution that we call SmartServices. The industry has been slow to embrace it, but I think it’s being accepted now. Especially since companies don’t have enough technical staff onboard, the ability to get process information through Industry 4.0 technology, companies are starting to see the benefits and are starting to really embrace it now.

Could you explain a little about SmartServices?

SmartServices is Conair’s cloud-based Industry 4.0 product for connecting, monitoring and managing auxiliary equipment.  The system collects data from a company’s equipment and uploads it to a central server, analyzes it and presents it to users in various ways to help them operate more efficiently. Customers have a cloud-based portal they can connect to where they can see and use all this data very efficiently. They can also control their equipment – even troubleshoot problems – through this central portal. It centralizes everything and automates the process and production management and control work that you need to do to be a competitive company these days.

One of people’s big concerns about this kind of system is that they don’t want anybody tapping into their IT system, and I totally get that. But everything SmartServices does happens in the cloud, which is totally secure. It can be a real game-changer for companies today.

How has the extrusion industry changed over the past 50 years?

The trend I have seen over the past 50 years is that extrusion has gone from being an art to [becoming] more of a science.

It used to be that extrusion depended on the knowledge and experience of the operator. You needed Joe Blow to run Line 3, and you needed Sam Smith to run Line 6. The science has come in the area of controls. Control 50 years ago was a push button to start and stop the equipment and a little knob that you turned to change the speed. Everything was analog, and the operator had to know that, if he needed to run a line at 40 feet per minute, say, you had to set the puller RPM to 50. Today, everything is digital with a touch-screen HMI where you can set the exact speed or temperature you need. If you are starting a job you’ve run before, you just call up the recipe. You don’t need Joe to remember where he set the potentiometer the last time. You have online laser measuring of product diameter or wall thickness, etc. If anything happens to change how the product comes out, the control loops see the change and can automatically adjust on the fly. Again, you don’t need Sam to measure a product sample and then go back upstream and tweak something.

The other thing that has changed in the last 50 years is that everything is servo today. Back in the day, you had DC motors that were analog. Today, it’s all servo and digital. That’s what I mean when I say that extrusion has changed from an art to a science.

What have been the most significant improvements to extrusion equipment that you have witnessed or been a part of developing?

Early on, as we started going to this digital environment, we developed – and patented – a vacuum sizing control apparatus that helps control the diameter of a pipe or tube. Again, instead of adjusting the vacuum by turning a bleed valve, we now do it all digitally. That was one of the more notable things I remember in my career.

Do you personally hold any patents?

Yes, I have that patent on the vacuum sizing apparatus.

In your early years in business, who was your mentor?

I’d say Charlie Gatto [founder of Gatto Machinery]. He was a pioneer in extrusion. He worked for an extruder and then saw a need to develop equipment. Although I went in as a trainee, he took me under his wing and taught me extrusion. He said, ‘I’m not going to teach you how to sell; I’m going to teach you extrusion, and if you know extrusion, you’ll be able to sell.” He was a real mentor to me early in my career.

The other mentor I had was Rose Gatto [Charlie’s wife]. She handled the finances. I learned all about finances and running a business from her.

What major challenges did you encounter as Conair grew?

Being a leader isn’t easy, and doing what it takes to stay a leader is what I’d say is one of the challenges that Conair faced and faced successfully. It means to continually reinvent yourself … either how you do things or the product. That’s a challenge. In other words, when you’re not the industry leader, and you’re trying to be one, it’s easy to poke holes at those leaders. But staying up there is what I consider to be one of the challenges.

What do you see as the next major development in extrusion technology?

For Conair, the latest thing is our PipeMaster line of tooling and downstream equipment for making pipe from 0.5-inch to 25-inch diameter. Since we came out with that a little more than a year ago, it’s been a big success. Otherwise, extrusion is a pretty mature market right now.

How do you think extrusion technology will differ 10 to 20 years from now?

There will be more controls and more accurate controls. I think mechanically, this equipment is very mature. So, there’s not a lot of mechanical technology advances that I see coming in the short term. But I think controls can continue to advance over the next 10 or 20 years.

Do you have any hobbies?

Golf, hiking, woodworking and fishing are some of the many things I do. I live by the ocean and driving onto the beach and surf casting for bass and bluefish and other things like that is a good thing for me. Working part time, I get a little bit more time to do things like that.

What is your future? I understand you’re going to retire soon.

I’m not ready to fully retire. I started the transition in June when I went part time, and I’ll see how that goes. On the other side of that, I envision some consulting work. It’s a transition. Mentally, I’m not ready to retire, but there’s a part of me that says you can’t work forever.

Have you set a date for retirement?

Not at present. I would say, if I had to guess, sometime in 2023, and then I would move toward a consulting role.

How would you like to be remembered? What legacy would you like to leave behind?

I would hope that I would be remembered as a person who always kept the interests of my customers and my co-workers at heart. I’ve tried to be a person that the industry and company could rely on. If I’ve been successful, that’s why and that’s how I’d like to be remembered.

Just the facts

Who is he: Ernie Preiato, VP of extrusion sales at Conair Group.

Education: B.A. in business from Long Island University in 1971

Years in the plastics industry: 50

Age: 72

Company founded: 1956 (as Rainville Co.); renamed Conair in 1964

Employees: 450