A&R Tarpaulins Inc. Vice President Bud Weisbart spent 1966 to 1968 developing anti-poverty programs in Peru in the Peace Corps



A&R Tarpaulins Inc. Vice President Bud Weisbart spent 1966 to 1968 developing anti-poverty programs in Peru in the Peace Corps

Seeking tent stakes in Japan

Feb 28, 2005

Caption: Bud Weisbart is vice president and owner of AR Tech, a division of A&R Tarpaulins. Photo: CariÑO Casas / The Business Press


Feb. 28--A&R Tarpaulins Inc. Vice President Bud Weisbart is flying to Japan today to negotiate a deal with Taiyo Kogyo Co. to supply emergency shelter units.

Headquartered in Osaka, Japan, Taiyo Kogyo manufactures tents and vinyl for structures.

A&R in Fontana manufactures fabric products for space ships, buildings and trucks. A&R customers include the Navy, NASA and Toyota.

The manufacturer employs 32 workers and is the parent company of AR Tech.

Weisbart began talks with Taiyo Kogyo in July.

Weisbart met Motonobu Nohmura, a family member of the owner in 1998 through the Industrial Fabrics Association International, a nonprofit trade association headquartered in Roseville, Minn. The two kept up a friendship over the years.

Weisbart and Nohmura discussed A&R providing shelters for use in Japan.

"We built and sent them the prototype in November and we will go to Japan to make a presentation Feb. 28," Weisbart said Feb. 17. "No deal has been made yet. The goal of the trip is to get something" such as an agreement or commitment, he said.

If a deal is made, A&R Taurpalins would manufacture the air awning, fabric emergency shelters and export them to Japan. Taiyo Kogyo would distribute the shelters.

A&R generated $2.5 million in revenue in 2004. The manufacturer expects revenues will increase this year by $300,000 "if the deal with Japan goes through," Weisbart said.

Not those blue tarps!

A&R manufactures tarps but not the ubiquitous blue ones familiar to Californians.

"We don't make those blue tarps. I don't even like them," Weisbart said. "We sell heavy duty 18-ounce tarps for trucks."

The tarps weigh 18-ounces per square yard, are five-feet wide, heat treated for water proofing and are twice the thickness of those ubiquitous blue tarps, Weisbart said. A&R tarps are used to cover truck beds and loads.

A&R makes acoustic insulation and liners for the Lockheed Martin Atlas 2AR rocket space vehicle.

Weisbart bought a $50,000 laser-guided cutting and mapping machine in November to help A&R keep up with demand for products. The machine maps Mylar patterns and files them in a computer. It can cut fabric into any shape the designer wants.

A&R Tarpaulins was founded by Aundra Arrington and Bud's father, Ralph Weisbart in 1976. A&R was originally headquartered in Boyle Heights but in 1988, Arrington bought a building in Fontana.

"We decided to fully move to Fontana in 1992. We needed to consolidate because we were not coordinating well," Weisbart said.

Weisbart, 64, bought a third of the company in 1978 after 17 years as a social services administrator for Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Weisbart's wife, Carmen, joined A&R in 1989. She is president of the company.

Weisbart spent 1966 to 1968 developing anti-poverty programs in Peru.

He spent time in the Peace Corps in 1963.

Weisbart realized that the social service work he wanted to do would be difficult to accomplish as a public servant because funds were not available at the time. So he turned to business.

"My passion was developing programs based on needs to address issues among youth. Now we do the same conceptual thing in designing products and services in companies," Weisbart said.

Originally, A&R focused on tarps for trucks.

"Over the years, my father and I disagreed on what direction the company should take," Weisbart said. "I thought we should expand our business into the aerospace industry and he didn't."

Weisbart bought his father's share of A&R in 1990. A&R landed contracts with Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

When Arrington retired in 1999, Weisbart bought the remaining shares. Arrington died March 12, 2000.

Weisbart wants to keep his company small because the challenge of handling a high-revenue company would not be in his best interest.

Headquarters: Fontana

Annual sales: $2.5 million

Employs: 32

Founded: 1976

When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

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March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.

Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory.

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February 26, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Folk-Singer Steve Schuch releases "Trees of Life" 26 Feb Christopher Bartlett maintains Marine Protected Area 25 Feb Joseph Frey uses amputation experience to help others 25 Feb James McCann concerned by maize in Ethiopia 25 Feb Sen. Obama says PC can help improve diplomacy 24 Feb PCVs help remove batteries in Belize 24 Feb Jimmy Carter praises mother's PC service 24 Feb Craig D. Wandke's lunar passion began in Honduras 23 Feb Char Andrews discusses her experience with cancer 23 Feb Beverly Seckinger tells stories through film 23 Feb J. Tyler Dickovick: As Togo goes, so may go Africa 23 Feb Andres Hernandez searches for PCV for 40 years 23 Feb Bulgaria is now like second home to Aaron Wills 22 Feb Bernadette Roberts to serve as diplomat in Albania 22 Feb USA Freedom Corps downgraded at White House 22 Feb Tom Skeldon seeks to control pit bull trade 21 Feb Gabriela Lena Frank writes music on Dad's PCV service 21 Feb

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Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments.

WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.

Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress.

RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey.

Read the stories and leave your comments.