Published 7/11/2019

Amerimold 2019: A Few Leadtime Leader Memories

Part of the fun of winning Leadtime Leader honors is celebrating with one’s peers and team members at Amerimold. Here are some highlights.

Edited by: MMT Editorial Team

The crowd was buzzing in anticipation of MoldMaking Technology Magazine’s Leadtime Leader Award ceremony. It is wonderful having fellow moldmakers and supplier friends there to applaud the winning shop’s achievements.

After Amerimold closed on day one, the MoldMaking Technology editorial team (from left) Heather Wintle, Christina Fuges and Cynthia Kustush are all smiles, and poised to announce that X-Cell Tool and Mold has captured Leadtime Leader honors for 2019!

It is time to announce this year’s Leadtime Leader shop: X-Cell Tool and Mold! MoldMaking Technology Magazine’s Editorial Director Christina Fuges looks forward to this moment each year, when she can reveal the winner and welcome them up to the podium.

Ron Novel, president of X-Cell Tool and Mold, holds up his beautiful Leadtime Leader award while being congratulated by Dave LaGrow, president of last year’s Leadtime Leader shop, Maximum Mold Group. Dave helped Christina present the award to Novel and his team. The smiles on both faces underscore the deep pride this award brings to those who are honored.

Ron Novel accepts the award on behalf of his team, and thanks everyone at his company for making it the successful, growing operation that it is today – and a Leadtime Leader. Ron is flanked by his General Manager, Jim Cummings, at left and Operations Manager Brian Dippel.

The X-Cell Tool and Mold team pauses for photographs with Glenn Starkey (black shirt) and his brother Don Starkey (in gray) of Progressive Components. Each year, Progressive sponsors the Leadtime Leader Award by generously sponsoring the ceremony and also the Networking Party that immediately follows.

As part of its award, Leadtime Leader shop X-Cell Tool and Mold received a free booth at Amerimold 2019. Here some of the team members chat with friends and well-wishers.

If there is one thing at Amerimold that our editorial team looks forward to each year, it is announcing the new Leadtime Leader winner. Lately, the competition has been fierce, with several entries received from top-notch moldmakers. But our judging panel, which is made up of individuals from companies that would purchase molds, voted X-Cell Tool as its first choice.

As soon as we received the deciding votes, we were off to visit X-Cell Tool and get a first-hand look at what makes this company so notable. We spent two days with their team, taking video and photographs, getting to know the people and gathering the information that would help formulate our June MMT cover story. It was a wonderful visit that also helped us produce a special Leadtime Leader video for X-Cell.

Part of the fun of winning Leadtime Leader honors is celebrating with one’s peers and team members at Amerimold. Here are some highlights.