High-performance portfolio created by RICO GROUP

Thalheim/Wolfhalden/South Florida. The focus is on sustainable growth and concentrated know-how from the use of comprehensive synergies and global efficiency. This is why the participation of Rico Elastomere Projecting GmbH based in Thalheim near Wels/Austria in Swiss Silcoplast AG in September 2015 was only the first step towards the formation of an internationally powerful technology and a production network in elastomer and plastics processing. A further one has followed now. In April 2016 Enrique Camacho, president of the U.S. silicone parts manufacturer SIMTEC Silicone Parts located in South Florida, USA transferred his shares to the Upper Austrians’. RICO GROUP based in Thalheim, was founded to develop, coordinate and implement the common international activities of the three companies.

Alfred Griesbaum, Johannes Grabner and Gerhard Kornfelder, founders and owners of Rico and the RICO GROUP, describe the vision behind the strategic fusion: "We agreed about the targets of this cooperation from the very beginning: We want to solve technically challenging tasks together with our customers while supporting them from the development of their first designs to the finished products. We offer this service to our customers worldwide through the RICO GROUP." Enrique Camacho, founder of SIMTEC Silicone Parts, adds: „Only by continuously enhancing the group companies’ portfolio, we can maintain the leading position in elastomer processing. Above all, the cooperation is aiming to make the RICO GROUP a technology driver with a leadership function for the entire branch.”

Creating added value through synergies

Each of the RICO GROUP partners will contribute his individual competence to the group. Rico Elastomere Projecting GmbH’s mold technology for processing elastomers, in particular liquid silicone rubber (LSR), solid silicone rubber (HTV), and 2-Shot applications has formed the basis. The technology has been developed over decades. Due to this long-lasting development of the production technology and the automation of the production processes, the companies within RICO GROUP now perfectly master the production of silicone material components and 2-Shot combinations. For the customers, it is mostly about how the parts can be produced efficiently. This is where RICO GROUP comes in. It already holds a consulting function at the early stage of component development. It does not matter if the customer produces on his own or if production is performed by a partner of RICO GROUP. In the areas of mold maintenance and mold engineering, RICO GROUP is available to customers from around the world as well. Additionally, RICO GROUP produces the first prototypes, optimizes the entire production system down to fully automated production and allows production in a Class VII clean room. Subsequent processes including the installation of assemblies are also among the services of RICO GROUP. The offer is rounded off by custom-relevant packing of the products and delivery of the products according to customer requirements. Thus, it is possible to support and advise our customers worldwide at each stage of the value chain.

Rico Group: The customers are our focus

The merging of the three companies ensures sustainable growth. The focused knowledge, global efficiency and market knowledge will help all customers to secure and extend their market leadership. The identity and culture of the individual sites have not been changed. This means that the customers' contact partners will remain the same. Under the umbrella of RICO GROUP, all customers will profit from an extended service offer and an increased service level at the same time. Pending tasks will be solved with strong dynamics and coordinated within the group. Finally, the ultimate goal is that whether "Made in Austria", "Made in the USA" or "Swiss made" – customers can always expect premium quality and a high service level.

This is yet another issue about which the owners of RICO GROUP agree: "We are able to supply our customers with a uniform high standard in mold technology, parts production and clean room production throughout the world. This brings advantages for all customers who can have their parts produced at several sites, for example, to reduce their delivery times. They may use our entire know-how or just selected areas. They can purchase a mold from us or use our production capacities for serial parts. Finally customers want to work with the best of the branch.”