Most people have never heard of A+ Group, and that is more or less the point of a business built entirely around components other companies build their own products on top of. Headquartered on Timber Lane in Marlboro, the privately held manufacturer and global sourcing company has spent more than 25 years engineering and distributing the plastic and metal hardware, cam buckles, side release buckles, snaps, hooks, and custom fasteners, that show up inside outdoor gear, military apparel, pet collars, medical restraints, and luggage sold around the world. This month, the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce named the company’s chief executive, Elizabeth “Betty” Matlaga, to its 2026 class of Women of Inspiration, part of a statewide recognition program honoring women whose leadership has shaped New Jersey’s business community ahead of the Chamber’s awards reception this October in East Windsor.

Building a Career From the Ground Up, Literally

Matlaga’s path to running A+ Group did not follow a conventional executive track. She began her career nearly 40 years ago while also taking on the demands of being a young single parent, leaning on a college degree in economics from Rutgers to build a foundation in corporate finance. That combination eventually carried her into C-suite financial roles at a series of small and mid sized privately held New Jersey companies, including earlier stints at Astro Molding and Amerimold Tech, both grounded in the same plastics and hardware manufacturing world A+ Group now operates in. Matlaga has credited an early employer who recognized her ability and gave her room to grow professionally without forcing her to sacrifice her role at home, an opportunity she has said let her build a career and raise a family without treating the two as competing priorities.

She has now spent the past 12 years running A+ Products in a dual capacity, serving simultaneously as chief executive and chief financial officer, a structure that puts her directly in charge of both the company’s day to day strategic direction and its underlying financial discipline. Colleagues and the Chamber’s own recognition have pointed less to any single flashy achievement than to the steadiness of that leadership, describing Matlaga as someone whose influence extends well past her formal titles into her roles as a mentor, board member, and active supporter of the broader community around her.

A Global Supply Chain Built From a New Jersey Warehouse

What makes A+ Group’s footprint notable is how far its reach extends relative to its low public profile. Beyond its Marlboro headquarters and distribution facilities on both the East and West Coasts, the company operates international logistics hubs in Montreal, Shanghai, and Ciudad Juárez, giving it direct sourcing and distribution capability across three continents. That global sourcing network operates alongside domestic manufacturing capacity built specifically around narrow fabric sewing, dye sublimation, die cutting, and final product kitting, letting the company offer customers both overseas cost efficiency and a genuine Made in USA production option depending on what a given order actually requires.

The company has also built its business around representing established hardware engineering brands rather than working purely as an anonymous parts supplier, serving as the North American distributor for names including Fidlock, known for its magnetic fastening systems, along with Bodypoint, Systemmag, Trimmers, and Winhigh. That brand representation work sits alongside A+ Group’s own proprietary hardware line, giving customers across outdoor gear, military equipment, and medical device manufacturing a single sourcing partner capable of supplying both name brand components and custom engineered alternatives depending on a project’s specific requirements.

For an industry that rarely gets much public attention outside trade publications, Matlaga’s recognition offers a rare moment of visibility for both her own multi decade career and the kind of behind the scenes manufacturing and sourcing work that keeps far more visible consumer and industrial products functioning as intended. The buckle on a hiking pack or the snap on a pet collar is not the kind of detail most people think about, but for the companies that actually build those products, a reliable hardware partner like A+ Group is very often the difference between a product that holds up and one that does not.