Ed Smith retires from Zochem after 32 years in industry

DICKSON, Tenn.—Ed Smith wore many hats during the three decades he spent in the zinc oxide industry.

Zochem L.L.C.'s now former vice president of sales and marketing has helped steer the company toward its current position as a leader in the zinc oxide industry—a "Dream Team" of sorts, as Zochem President and CEO Mohit Sharma has termed it.

But Smith also handled website direction and freight logistics, sourcing and customer service.

He has turned on the lights in the morning and shut down the furnaces at night.

Along with Sharma, Smith is responsible for modernizing the supplier of varying grades of zinc oxide with better, more emission-free production equipment.

And together they have led Zochem, with production facilities in Tennessee and Brampton, Ontario, to $350 million in annual sales.

But Smith now takes on a role with which he is completely unfamiliar: retirement.

"I grew up honest and frugal and hardworking," Smith told Rubber News Jan. 16. "You treat people with respect and fairness. There are no shortcuts ... all I have is my ethics. You need to build trust, as this is not a business where we are here to sell today and walk away tomorrow.

"We are here for our customers day after day, week after week, and year after year."

And, apparently, decade after decade.

"When you enjoy what you are doing as much as Ed Smith has, it's tough to make a last curtain call," Sharma said. "Win or lose, you always want to know you have the support of your teammate, no matter what the challenge is ahead.

"Ed has been both supportive and educational in the strategies that we have put together to bring Zochem to the next level."

Zochem, with about 85 employees between its two manufacturing sites, serves the tire, rubber, chemical, electronics, agricultural, plastics, pharmaceutical and ceramics markets, among others.

While about 40 percent of demand for the total zinc oxide market (from all producers of zinc oxide) in North America is driven by the tire manufacturing industry, the compound also can be found in motor oil and transmission fluid, dental care products, fertilizers, livestock feeds, over-the-counter flu remedies, vitamins, tile glazes, paints, food additives and even electronics.

As Smith steps out of his second home in Florida as a retired man, he likely will need the sunscreen that zinc oxide makes possible.

"I've made a lot of friends in North America and around the world," Smith said. "I will miss my co-workers and customers. You don't work for 32 years in an industry and just walk away.

"It's time for a new generation to step in."

Smith will be succeeded in his role at Zochem by Seth Johnson.

"Ed played a vital role in where Zochem is today, and his drive and loyalty to this company have always been apparent," Johnson said. "He's been a mentor and provided continued support over these past six-plus years, for which I'll always be grateful. Ed, we enjoyed the ride and wish you a happy, healthy, and much-deserved retirement."

Born and raised in Chicago, Smith attended Northern Illinois University, graduating in 1979 with a degree in accounting.

"Boy, that was a long time ago," Smith recalled. "Living in DeKalb, I wanted to go into business, as accounting and finance were my strengths."

So he did what anyone with a focus on numbers and metrics might do—he went into sales and electronics.

Smith was hired immediately out of college by United Chemi-Con, a primarily Japanese and Southeast Asian firm that makes capacitors.

Smith counted Northern Telecom and AT&T as two of his major accounts while he was there.

Shortly after that, Smith transitioned to CentraLab of Coral Springs, Fla., another capacitor manufacturing company with 20 plants throughout North America.

"This was an interesting network, and it was cool working with different designs for things that were coming out in the next two, three or four years," Smith said.

The decade he spent in the capacitor space would be his last stint in any industry outside of zinc oxide, as Smith joined Houston-based U.S. Zinc in 1990.

"I wanted a new challenge, and the job description listed international travel, customer approvals and contract negotiations," Smith said. "So I kicked the idea around a bit, the notion that perhaps I needed to prove myself in a different industry."

Smith admitted that he knew about as much about zinc oxide in 1990 as he does about retirement today.

"I didn't know a thing about zinc oxide or the rubber industry ... and it was the best decision I'd ever made in my life," he said.

In 2013, Smith and six other entrepreneurial partners struck out on their own, building the start-up Zinc Oxide L.L.C. from the ground up in Dickson in 2013.

The new supplier of zinc oxide, with about 170,000 square feet in the heart of the U.S., was up and running by 2014.

Zinc Oxide became Zochem four years later when the "little guy bought the big guy" in 2017, Smith said. Zinc Oxide purchased Zochem, a move that brought Zochem's smaller 120,000-sq.-ft. Brampton facility but much larger capacity into the fold, and the Zochem of today was born.

Though Zinc Oxide was known and established, the acquisition took on the Zochem moniker for its greater name recognition and branding.

"Ed's drive was an integral part of the team's success, which ultimately amalgamated with the Zochem merger in 2017 to become what is today's 'Dream Team,' " Sharma said. "As a consummate leader, his role did not stop at customer orders and approvals."

Smith's legacy at the supplier includes the establishment of a strong distribution network, as well as an experienced, "self-starting" customer sales team.

"For my sales team, I picked the best of the best," he said of the earlier Zinc Oxide days. "I hired four or five people from other companies who had been in the zinc oxide industry before. Each of these guys had 20 years experience each, so we really hit the ground running.

"Having an experienced sales force is crucial ... but equally important is customer service, getting people same-day answers. I insisted upon that."

Smith has been a stalwart representative of the Zochem brand, Sharma said, and a "considerate leader and advocate of the team's successes."

"Always a planner and interested in the path ahead, Ed supported the succession plan to ensure leadership and continued support (so) the Zochem customer base was intact," Sharma said. "The tools, methodology and insights developed by Ed were shared to build a continuum of knowledge and education to keep the sales and marketing team on track."

Smith exits stage left having increased capacity and modernized equipment in Dickson.

The company has a fourth furnace coming online there in the second quarter of this year, increasing Zochem's capacity in Dickson by about 15,000 metric tons per year.

Zochem currently produces about 100,000 metric tons per year between Dickson and Brampton, with about 60 percent coming from Ontario and 40 percent from Tennessee.

"I think the latest thing has been focusing on carbon emissions, water pollution, sustainability," Smith said. "All our furnaces use the latest technology, producing the least amount of emissions."

The coming fourth furnace line was a $7 million investment made about a year ago, and it means more capacity by way of efficiency.

Zochem produces zinc oxide by the French process, an indirect process whereby zinc metal is placed in a solid form into the huge muffle furnaces and heated to a molten form. The molten zinc then is boiled in a different furnace, and the boiling zinc ultimately is introduced to ambient air.

At that point the zinc self-ignites and forms zinc oxide, a fine white powder that can be distributed as-is, or in pellet form.

According to Sharma, very few zinc oxide producers use muffle furnaces, with a majority using the less-efficient crucible technology, "like a big pot on a stove."

A muffle furnace is a 40-foot-by-20-foot apparatus with much larger molten metal baths, which offer much more available surface area to vaporize zinc metal.

In addition, the design allows for better transmission of heat (generated by natural gas for Zochem) and conducts better in this closed-capsule environment.

And the heat source itself, Sharma said, never touches the metal, as muffle furnaces provide an indirect heat conducted through a refractory arch made of silicon carbide, which itself conducts heat to the bath.

The notion of proximity to customer has been important in regards to sustainability as well, Smith said, as he cited warehouses in Toronto and Nashville that Zochem purchased under Smith's watch.

"We are especially prominent in the Ohio Valley," Smith said.

Smith said he will be available for Sharma and his team moving forward, and sees industry supply line and labor force challenges continuing.

Thankfully the company, at least in a business sense, seems to be beyond recessions and COVID.

For the time being.

"I think the toughest thing I went through (with U.S. Zinc) was the recession of 2008-09," Smith said. "We really had to knuckle down and cut costs. But we never lost money throughout anything."

Next came COVID in 2020, when Zochem was forced to cut zinc oxide production by 20 to 30 percent.

"We did not know if, or when, our customers were coming back," he said. "We were flexible enough to when we saw demand (increase) we could have another furnace up and running. All of this required good communication and forecasting."

The last year's uptick in tire manufacturing has been a boon for Zochem, which sees between 40 and 45 percent of its capacity funneled to the industry. Chemicals come in at around 20 percent of demand for Zochem, while fertilizer and animal feed is about 10 percent.

The earlier markets mentioned comprise the last 25 percent in varying amounts.

Quietly, Smith said, the battery storage market is becoming "the biggest potential I've seen thus far." And these are not alkaline batteries, he said, but rather the massive systems that WalMart and Amazon and FedEx depend on as backup when primary power is lost.

"Seriously, this is going to be like a tidal wave as worldwide demand increases," Smith said.

While zinc oxide has not changed, the efficiencies brought to Zochem by Ed Smith have made the process—in all production and business facets—better.

"Whether it be a quantitative fact or a brainstorming session, it has been a joy learning from Ed's experience while always knowing he had the best interest of Zochem in mind," Sharma said. "I thank him for his dependability, reliability, camaraderie and friendship."

Smith added he is adapting to his own, less-intrusive market changes.

"I've only been doing this retirement thing for a few weeks now," he said. "I plan to be very busy hiking and golfing. I've ordered a new sports car and have been visiting friends.

"I think every day is a Saturday now—and no meetings or getting on a plane is kind of nice."

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