All of us here at iD Additives can’t believe it is the end of 2022! We had an eventful year and are very proud of everything we have accomplished. Here is an overview of what iD Additives was up to this year:
TRADESHOW
PTXPO 2022- Rosemont, IL- March 29th-31st
Great in person show right by our corporate office. Our Technical Manager for our Preventative Maintenance Cleaning System gave a presentation on Closed-Loop Water Quality and Treatment. Thank you to everyone who stopped by!
PLASTEC WEST- Anaheim, CA- April 12th-14h
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Our President, Nick Sotos flew solo for this show, but we still had good foot traffic at the booth and we love seeing our California Industry friends!
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Injection Molding & Design Expo-Detroit, MI- May 25th-26th
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Ron Bishop, Bryan Whitaker, Dave Denzel, and Robert Young at our booth. Another great show!
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MAPP Show- Indianapolis, IN- October 5th-7th
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This is the iD Additives team’s favorite show. As always we learned a bunch and had so much fun catching up with everyone!
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AMBA Chicago Supplier’s Night- Chicago, IL- November 4th
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Robert Young and Bryan Whitaker talked all things Tooling and MRO Maintenance with the AMBA members!
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AMI Compounding World Show- Cleveland, OH- November 9th-10th
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This show was such a blast! Carolyn Young, Robert Young, Dave Denzel, and Bryan Whitaker had fun working the booth and at the networking event at the Punch Bowl Social.
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ZOOM CHATS with iD Additives
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We started our Zoom Chat series in 2020 and now it has become a staple at iD Additives!
,Benefits of High Temp Foaming Agent with Ron Bishop- February 2nd
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,Click here to watch the full presentation:,, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onLKvuCsKrM
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Cleaning and Benchmarking your Mold Cooling Lines for an Effective PM with Bryan Whitaker- August 24th
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Click here to watch the full presentation: ,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9BlvvdbnpU
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,,Milestone/Events
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This summer was the summer of golf for iD Additives. Such a blast at all the different golf outings with Industry friends!
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Nick, Carolyn, Heather, and the rest of the iD Additives team was presented the Gallis Award, which is ,,ORBIS Corporation‘s Supplier of the Month Award in June. We appreciate our customers and the recognition of the work our team does. Thank you again Bob & Matt for coming to visit and giving us this award. We are honored!
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In the last 2 years, we as a company have been trying to elevate our YouTube content and have been doing more filming in our warehouse. This year, our Eco-Pro 360 Technical Manager, ,,Bryan Whitaker and our Operations Manager, John Sotos worked away at making this backdrop out of old pallets for filming. And it turned out AMAZING! Great job Bryan and John!
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Our team did a new photoshoot in April for our marketing with Grant Schwingle. They turned out GREAT!
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFKMNkbA5qJhhM8MffIgV5g
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Rob and Carolyn Young got a dog in November 2021 and started bringing her to the office in January 2022. We love having Bonnie at the office with us everyday!
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,We celebrated work anniversaries this year (in order by picture):
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,Nick Sotos (President)- 17 years
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,Rob Young (Account Manager)- 1 year
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,Dave Denzel (Technical Manager)- 2 years
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,Bryan Whitaker (Technical Manager)- 4 years
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,Ron Bishop (Technical Manager)- 17 years
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,Paiton Powell (Warehouse Coordinator)- 1 year
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,Jeff Chierici (Warehouse Manager) 2 years
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,Carolyn Young (Sales & Marketing Coordinator)- 7 years
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,Heather Vitullo (Logistics Manager)-5 years
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,John Sotos (Operations Manager)- 16 years
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,Lindsay Hosanna (Director of Administrative Operations)- 9 years
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,The week of September 13th, we celebrated Truck Driver Appreciation day!
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Throughout the year, iD Additives made donations to both the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Beds Plus in La Grange. Click below to learn more about these amazing charities!
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Beds Plus:,, https://beds-plus.org/
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Greater Chicago Food Depository: ,,https://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/
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,For the Plastics Proud Blog, we interviewed two very interesting plastics-industry women, Annina Donaldson and Tammy Straw. Annina and Tammy are the Chair and Vice-Chair of the NPE2024 Sales & Marketing Committee. They are also the first ever all-female duo to run an NPE Committee in the show’s 75 year history! Thank you to Annina and Tammy for agreeing to speak with us for the Plastics Proud blog.
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,Click here to read: https://www.idadditives.com/single-post/first-ever-female-duo-leads-marketing-efforts-for-npe2024
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On December 6th, we had our Holiday Party. It was a blast and thank you to everyone who came to celebrate another great year!
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,This year, we asked everyone on the iD Additives team to share their proudest moment of 2022 along with pictures to go with it:
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“The thing that I am most proud of this year is that Jean and I made the move to living full time in the city of Chicago. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago and I always said that I would never leave but over the years, Jean and I spent a lot of time in the city and I have grown to really enjoy it. From the architecture, to the museums and all other great spots in Chicago, I have a lot to see and learn. My only problem now is figuring out how to lose the 20 lbs. I have gained since moving down here due to the great restaurants. Also, Jean and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. Still can’t believe she has put up with me this long.”- Nick Sotos- President
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“I have tried to think of my proudest moment.
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Here it is, I have never gotten a deer like this my whole life.
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My proudest moment was when I put my hands on him.
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A lot of people can’t understand but the hunters all know how I feel.
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What an amazing day it was, I was drinking coffee one morning, looked out my back door and there he was.
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I put my coffee down snuck out and got him.
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So proud of him.”- Ron Bishop-Technical Manager of Chemical Foaming Agent
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“This year I am most proud of celebrating 10 years being married to my husband Matt. We met in 2009 and married in October 2012. Over the years we’ve had 2 kids, 1 dog, 2 houses, 1 condo and a whole lot of love. Marriage, as anyone who is married knows, has ups and downs, high highs and sometimes some low lows. I am so proud of all we have done and all we have accomplished together so far. I am proud of the life we have built and all the steps we took, bridges crossed and mountains moved to get there. We are both eagerly looking forward to the next 10 years (and more!).Coincidentally, my 10 year anniversary of my return to iD Additives is coming up in January 2023. I am so proud to have been a part of the last 10 years at iD Additives and look forward to many more. I love that my anniversaries are within 3 months of each other, even though not the same calendar year. To the future!” “– Lindsay Hosanna- Director of Administrative Operations
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“Besides adding 31 New Purge Customers so far this year, the most exciting moment was actually watching our first Urban Garden growing Tomatoes, Beans, Peppers, Pattypan’s and then using them to make awesome meals on my Blackstone Grill. YUM. No deer damage though they did climb on the deck to try to get to it. Had to block it with furniture. Time to expand it this next year.”– Dave Denzel- Technical Manager of Purging Compound
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“One accomplishment I am most proud of this year is being able to finally adopt two pet cats. I have always had a slight fear of cats in the past but this year I overcame that. My partner and I fell in love with these little cuties, and I have loved learning more and more about cats and what amazing creatures they are. I’m proud to overcome this fear and start my little family with the four of us.”–Paiton Powell- Warehouse Coordinator
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“Something I’m proud of is my first year with iD Additives and my first year in the plastics Industry in general. It’s been a fun ride and I feel like I learn something new everyday. I work with some of the best people who help me grow every day. Between the trade shows, visiting customers at their plants, and golf outings, it’s been fun to travel and network with new people. This past October I was able to attend my second MAPP show, which I would say is by far my favorite show. Not only do we get to network with people and can add new business, but I also get to connect with other people in similar roles as myself. It’s a great opportunity to learn from peers who have been in the industry for several years and offer my experiences as well. I’m already looking forward to 2023 and what it will have to offer.”– Robert Young- Account Manager
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“My proudest moment in 2022 was being featured in an article in Plastics Business on the marketing efforts I have done for iD Additives. I was interviewed by Lindsey Munson and her and I were on the phone for an hour. A few weeks later when the magazine came out, I was featured on the cover. I was in total shock! I am really proud of all the different ideas and things I have done for the marketing efforts of iD Additives, but I couldn’t have done it without the willingness of the Technical Managers to be on camera to grow the YouTube page. I am proud of myself and our team. Bring it on 2023!”- Carolyn Young- Sales & Marketing Coordinator
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Click here to read the article:, https://bluetoad.com/publication/?i=768356
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“This was such an exciting year for the Vitullo’s. In August we moved Maria in at the University of Iowa to begin her 1st year of college. She loves it there and is doing very well adjusting. Nicole also got her driver’s License which frees up a lot of time for me not having to drive her places. Danielle has kept busy with softball and swim team. We are very proud of all 3 girls, and looking forward to the same in 2023.”–Heather Vitullo- Logistics Manager
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“2022 brought lots of good memories, as well as very humbling ones, so it’s hard to single out one specific moment. I would have to say I’m most proud of the projects I completed, both at work and at home. We moved our Texas operations to Chicago, which resulted in the need to build office space. We wanted to improve our digital marketing, so built a nice backdrop for our YouTube videos (I guess I have to give partial credit to John Sotos, too). At home, I remodeled our powder room and built cabinets from scratch for our laundry room. So I guess ultimately, I’m most proud that I justified all my tool purchases, ha!- Bryan Whitaker- Technical Manager for Preventative Maintenance Cleaning Systems
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“I am very proud of all the improvements we made to our Aurora warehouse facility in 2022. After closing our Texas facility at the end of 2021, we took to improving our Aurora, IL facility to increase our production capabilities and office spacing. First we planned a project to install a new 12’ x 20’ prefabricated office inside the warehouse for myself and our Eco Pro Tech Manager, Bryan Whitaker, to share. Bryan and I worked well together to build the office. It was a pleasure working with Bryan on this project, although he may not feel the same, due to my relentless sarcasm during the process!
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We made many improvements to our machinery to increase reliability, ergonomics, and efficiency. Due to electrical supply differences between the facility in Aurora and the old facility in Texas, we updated the drives on our blenders to eliminate constant drive defaults. We redesigned some equipment by repositioning machine controls for better operator ergonomics and safety. We are now positioned to face any increases in demand that may arise.
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We also made improvements to our company box truck by installing a new diamond plate floor. This makes the daily forklift traffic in and out of the truck much safer, allowing for less stress on the forklift driver and the truck when loading and unloading.
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Finally, Bryan and I attempted a fun project of installing a decorative skid wall in the Eco Pro section of the warehouse. This wall will serve as the backdrop for the many informational YouTube videos that Bryan does to educate our customers on the uses and abilities of our Eco Pro product line. I am very proud of the craftsmanship and how this wall turned out. Again, Bryan was great to work with on this project and was again able to survive my relentless sarcasm. On a side note to this project, we actually used pallet boards from our warehouse along with the sign that previously hung outside our plant in Texas, as the center piece of the wall. That sign will remind all of us of the journey the company has taken through the years.“- John Sotos- Operations Manager
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“I think I am most proud of being able to be an active and attentive father and husband this year, despite work and time constraints. My wife graduated from her 4 year Nurse Practitioner program in April of this year. It was a very strenuous and time consuming endeavor for her, so that meant I had to pick up extra slack around the house, whether it was driving kids to activities, doing dishes, or cleaning the house. I also was able to coach my son’s baseball team throughout the summer, and this fall, my daughter was in a very rigorous and time consuming cheerleading program, so that meant a lot of back and forth rides to and from practice, as well as attending the football games they cheered for, and the competitions they performed in. Overall, it was a very busy year for my entire family, but it was also very rewarding that we were able to spend so much time together and grow even closer as a unit.”– Jeff Chierici- Warehouse Manager
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,Thank you to all our customers and suppliers for making this such a great year. From all of us here at iD Additives & Carver Plastics, we wish you a Happy Holidays and New Year. Bring on 2023!
