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Barry Matties speaks with Ventec International COO Mark Goodwin about a new direction for Ventec. A major player in the global laminate market, Mark says Ventec’s primary focus remains the same. As a creative thinker and entrepreneur at his core, Mark explains that Ventec's move to add select equipment lines to their product lineup only adds value for their existing customers and complements existing product lines.
Barry Matties: Ventec is a brand that is well known for its materials, and you've now introduced equipment into the brand. Do you think that creates confusion?
Mark Goodwin: No, I don't. Ventec is, first and foremost, a materials and manufacturing business. Our primary focus is specialty and high-performance products, laminates, prepregs, bondply RCC, etc., but we still manufacture the standards. For example, our mid- and high-Tg VT-481 and VT-47 materials are really well-proven and reliable workhorses for our customers. Ventec came from an FR-4 background like many laminators, but our manufacturing focus has changed for the future, and so has our supply chain business. Our supply chain capability has been a big discussion. We have built a supply chain platform, and we are good at it; why not leverage that? It has value for us, our partners and our customers.
Let’s discuss what we did with one of our primary product suppliers. They had a previous supply chain relationship in Europe that wasn't delivering for customers. They came to Ventec, asked if we would take it on, and we've done it. Ask the customers whether the situation has improved, and the answer is clearly yes, with both customer satisfaction and sales volumes (which is always the validation) improving. So, to cut a long story short, we added equipment to the mix, along with the inks, flex, drill materials, release films, and all the other good things we supply.
We can package many things with our laminates, both physical and as part of our sales story. The equipment is just another thing, and it’s very much associated with the other products we sell. For example, we have via plugging equipment from Sunus, and we sell and distribute the via fill paste from Taiyo. For inkjet printing of solder mask, we offer High Print equipment and, again, we can offer inks from Taiyo. We just talked about bond plies and non-reinforced dielectric layers. This will require a better class of press plate to get the right surface finish, so we have press plates from Cardel. There's logic to this. Ventec is not in the wet process equipment business; we don't sell chemistry, so at present it does not make sense to offer this type of equipment. The equipment offering must have a logical connection to another part of our business. So, that’s what we have started to do, and we aren’t finished yet. There will be more product lines, but they will be related to some consumable or raw material product we are distributing, marketing, and selling.
Matties: When you look at materials vs. capital equipment, are you creating a knowledge base or a team that will be dedicated to that?
Goodwin: I've never sold capital equipment, but I didn't do this from a zero base. My new business partner, who is well versed in the equipment business, came to me after losing some momentum during the pandemic. He asked me, “Can we package this up somehow?” I thought it was a great idea, but I told him it needed some direction around it. I was in Asia for three weeks before finalizing some of these deals around equipment to present at productronica. The focus was all on equipment related to things we already do. There has to be a connection, a logical sales story.
Will I create package deals? Yes, probably. But I haven't gotten that far yet. I believe in starting something with a thread of logic running through it and seeing where it takes us. We are a very creative company and we will package solutions as the opportunities present themselves.
Matties: It is important for the readers to understand your thinking around these changes, what they can expect, and why it makes sense. Thank you, Mark, for your time. It is always a pleasure speaking with you. Good luck with this new direction.
Goodwin: Thank you.
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