Lorin’s 75th Anniversary, Commitment to Industry, and Community Sustainability Discussed on The Welsh Wire
By Park Kersman and Phil Pearce
We recently spoke to Sheri Walsh from the Welsh Wire Podcast about our 75th anniversary, and about our continued commitment to industry and community sustainability. In our discussion with Sheri, we talked about how we have seen a lot happen over the past 75 years, from the first ever continuous coil anodized aluminum, to the anodized aluminum innovations we pioneered for making electrical windings in MRI machines; but we also discussed Lorin’s future.
As we told Sheri, being a 75-year-old company comes with both challenges and opportunities. We have a history of being focused on innovation and quality and we are all very proud of what we have accomplished over the years. This rich history gives us credibility in the marketplace as a company that has continued to evolve. At this stage in our life as a company, the main challenges we face are related to keeping the image that we have worked so hard to build.
How can we maintain that image? Sheri asked the same question. Here’s what we told her: First, we will continue to differentiate ourselves via our unique approach to anodized aluminum – our continuous coil process assures a high level of consistency across the width and length of the entire coil, a consistency our competitors can’t match. Second, we recently began to recognize the importance of helping the market see and understand what we do. In researching how we can best promote ourselves in this landscape, we found that either people do not really understand what anodized aluminum is, or they had a lot of negative misconceptions about the material. So, we focused on finding the answers to these questions about our business: Why don’t people buy anodized? What are they looking for in a product? What do they see as the advantages of anodized? What problems can anodized help them solve?
Based on this information, we have decided we will promote awareness of continuous coil anodized aluminum, and the whole metals category. We want to make metals in general, and Lorin anodized aluminum specifically, the “have-to-have” product – whether you are a product designer for consumer or commercial products, or an architect, or designer working on the next iconic building. Not only can we bring anodized to the forefront via this marketing strategy, we can also show how Lorin anodized aluminum is unique.
As we wrapped up our talk with Sheri, we concluded that this marketing focus is our future. We will continue working hard to preserve the image we have built over the years, but we will also continue evolving as a solutions provider to the markets we currently serve, while growing into markets we don’t yet serve via our new marketing efforts. It is an opportunity for us to continue to define our relevance as an organization while recognizing who we are and who we need to become.