GoldKey was started from scratch by four charter members of its current management team - Schill, Toth, Vancura and Marian Morrison, vice president of administration and customer service - in December 1997.

Each had extensive experience with rubber companies. “All the charter members of our management team had previously worked for companies with sterling reputations, and we determined that our new company would become recognized for similar overall excellence in its performance,” Schill said.

The management team came up with the name GoldKey because they wanted a name that brings quality and value to mind, he said, “along with a connotation of superior performance, and we felt that having ‘gold’ in our name gives that inference.” Quite simply, Toth said “we aren’t a me-too company.”

After compounding its first salable batch in December 1998, GoldKey launched production with one mixer in January 1999 at the 35,600 square foot facility it constructed in Middlefield. It had purchased 11 acres of a former cornfield to house its plant with the intent that it would expand if it was successful. The firm employed about 25 at the time.

The Middlefield location was selected because of its proximity to major urban centers and rubber product producers in Northeast Ohio as well as the availability of a large number of workers with experience in the rubber industry.

The company sprang out of the gate quickly and, focusing on custom compounding niches not addressed by competitors, broke into the black in its second year. “We were fortunate to land a big account in the first year,” Toth said. GoldKey’s been making additions to the production site on a regular basis since then to match the success it’s achieved in the marketplace.

For instance, it steadily added mixers and other machinery; expanded in sections to house the equipment; enlarged its laboratory; invested $2 million to build the 5,000 square foot pilot mixing and lab testing facility in late 2003; and purchased another eight acres of land adjacent to its present site to give it 20 acres. The acquired parcel remains unoccupied and available for growth down the line.

“There’s always an element of risk when you start a business. A lot of businesses don’t make it,” Toth said. “But we felt there was no reason we couldn’t be a player. We were known (in the industry) because of our previous work experience. We needed to prove we could take care of our customers’ needs and weren’t a greenfield company with green horns. We did that.

The custom mixer, which has rung up double-digit growth for the last several years, recently expanded its rubber mixing plant by 32,000 square feet, boosting the facility’s size to 120,000 square feet; added a mixing line; and increased its work force by 15 employees to about 150.

The new line includes a pelletizing machine needed to meet growth demand. It significantly increases the company’s capabilities and is housed in the expanded section of the Middlefield, Ohio factory, according to Ed Seeley, vice president of sales and marketing.

It gives the firm three intermesh mixing lines and a pilot line that’s part of its mixing and testing operation, allowing customers to find out what they are buying before committing to full production batches, said Randall Vancura, vice president of operations.

GoldKey broke ground on a planned 18,000 square foot expansion - this one to create a larger warehouse to support the company’s product lines.

In addition, the company recently came out with a family of proprietary sponge rubber compounds that customers turn into products.

Company officials didn’t say what the latest projects cost, but President and CEO Robert W. Toth estimates the price tag in the several-million-dollar range.

The reasons for GoldKey’s growth are simple, the three officials said: The company has had great success in key markets, it built a strong reputation for fulfilling customer’s needs and that reputation has spread, and the firm’s founders had a clear vision of how they wanted to grow before the business first opened its doors.

The privately held company has reinvested its earnings to expand its facility and upgrade its capabilities, Chairman James Schill said. “And we fully intend to continue on that path. As we expand, upgrade and refine, we give ourselves new capabilities that enable us to better serve existing markets and enter totally new markets as well.” In a sense, it’s been expansion by design, fueled by customer need.