The Misfits: UFP Technologies (UFPT)

It may have taken the company some time to find its true calling, but it's role in medical supplies has been a huge success.

The First Wounded, London Hospital, August 1914, John Lavery, 1914, oil on canvas (Dundee Art Gallery and Museum)

It’s rare for a company to change what it is fundamentally. A company that is a perpetual underperformer rarely transforms into a spectacular one. Even more rare is when that fundamental change happens with the same corporate leadership.

UFP Technologies (NASDAQ: UFPT) is one of those rare exceptions. Calling its first decade as a publicly traded company underperformance is…generous. From 1993 to 2003, the company’s stock dropped more than 80%. And yet here we are today with a company that has more than doubled the performance of the S&P 500 since its IPO.

Even more remarkable is that UFP went from market dud to stud under the same leadership. CEO R. Jeffrey Bailey has been at the helm since 1995, transforming this company from an unspectacular commodity packaging company into a truly unique medical supplier.

Let’s dig into how this happened and whether UFP Technologies (not to be confused with UFP Industries (NASDAQ: UFPI), profiled here) has permanently changed its stripes for the better.

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