Craig Ferriot’s Speech at 90th Anniversary Event for Employees on 6/11/19
Celebrating 90 Years of Excellence in Building Ferriot’s Future
This is our 90th year celebration. I can’t believe it. I’ve been here a third of it. 33 years! And over the last couple of weeks, I’ve taken the opportunity to go back and look at some old literature, and I was able to get a lot of information from my dad, my grandfather and some others. I was reminded of all the things that took place at Ferriot that made it successful.
We are here in celebration of what we have achieved together. Without you guys, it wouldn’t be possible. Without the people that preceded us, it wouldn’t be possible. Without our customer’s loyalty, it wouldn’t be possible. It wouldn’t be possible without the suppliers that we deal with, your families, who put up with you working every day and doing some things above and beyond. You do that every day, without exception and we appreciate it. So really, this day is for all of you. It is for everything we built together and more importantly, the future and what we could build for the next 90 years.
One of the key things to our success is people. You are the folks that make us successful. And one of the things our founding fathers always said is, “dream big, achieve big.” That is something they lived every day. They didn’t settle for conventional. They wanted to solve major problems. I would like to take a moment and share a little bit about Ferriot and our history.
We had some pretty remarkable founding fathers going back seven generations. After coming to the Akron area to work for Goodrich, family members created several businesses and from Ferriot spawned about six different companies in Akron all based around mold making, die sinking and engraving.
Our name was synonymous with our people’s talents and what we were able to deliver to our customers. Our customers would have an idea, a sketch and bring it to us. These gifted artisans and craftsmen would take that idea and turn it into a product. They were actually responsible for not only helping to develop and design that product, but how it all fit together and how they had to market it.
There are the three things that stick with me today; that’s appreciation for people, pride in our workmanship and what we deliver to our customers, and remembrance. Remembrance of those who came before us and everything that they were able to accomplish and build as a foundation for all of us to enjoy. We’re writing our new chapters right now. The key is keep dreaming. Don’t settle for something less. Don’t be conventional. Don’t be discouraged if you make mistakes; that’s how we learn. So with that, I’d like to thank everybody for the last 90 years in celebration of what we’ve accomplished together.
So I appreciate it. Give yourselves all a round of applause.
Learn more:
- Molding History: “Forever Thankful for What They Were Able to Contribute”
- Ferriot Celebrates 90 Years as “Your Partner in Plastic”
- More Ferriot History
