About us
We spent thirty years being very good and completely invisible.
The record
TCO has operated from Corbin, Kentucky since 1997. For roughly three decades we were the near-exclusive contract packager for an automotive lighting business, packing to big box and automotive chain retail standards, at volumes that peaked at 15 million units per month. We won supplier performance awards for it. We never built a sales team, because we never needed one.
What changed, said plainly
About two years ago that customer moved its manufacturing offshore, and roughly ninety percent of our volume went with it over an eighteen month wind-down. That was a decision about where they make things. It was not a judgment about our work, and nothing about the way we run changed.
We kept the plant, the equipment, the processes, the quality discipline and the people. What we lost was the pipeline. That is the honest version, and it is also why there is capacity on our floor while most of our competitors are quoting lead times.
The plant
The people
Around 20 people work here today, against a peak of roughly 250. Former employees still call to ask when the plant is ramping back up, which means adding a shift is a materially shorter path for us than for a company that has to go and find people first.
Who runs it
Ric Cawood, Managing Partner. Josh Robinson, Director of Operations. Both work on site, and both are in the building when a decision is needed. If you call about a program, you are talking to one of the two people who can approve it.
What we are looking for
Recurring programs rather than single runs. Non-food consumer products. Companies that use the word partner about their suppliers and mean it. We are deliberately building a diversified base of customers rather than another single anchor, because we have already learned what that costs.
Tell us what you need packed.
If it is non-food and it runs for six months or longer, we want to see it.