TORONTO - The new owner of a PVC calendered film plant in Tottenham, Ontario, plans to expand the facility and diversify. Paritosh Chakrabarti bought Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd.'s PVC film plant Feb. 1 for undisclosed terms, according to Philip Brearton, plant manager. He renamed the operation PMC Film Canada Inc.
Canadian Oxy tried to sell the plant for a few years before Chakrabarti, a former vice president of science and technology for PPG Industries Inc. of Pitts-burgh, presented an acceptable offer. Gerry Duffy, Canadian Oxy's vice president of planning and development, reiterated that the operation was not strategic to his Calgary, Alberta, firm's focus on industrial chemicals.
Brearton said PMC plans to add a second film line this year but has not decided on calendering or other technology. It has no plan to make blown PVC film. He stressed that PMC will emphasize value-added markets, although it will continue to make commodity PVC films for thermoforming, which was Tottenham's major market under Canadian Oxy.
Chakrabarti is looking at various downstream technologies, but has not disclosed a budget for PMC's expansion and diversification.
Chakrabarti was unavailable for an interview, but Brearton said he plans to expand the Tot-tenham business from C$20 million (US$14.6 million) a year to C$100 million (US$73 million) within several years.
``His philosophy is to develop expertise in niche markets,'' according to Brearton.
The plant in Tottenham, near Toronto, has about 20 million pounds of annual extrusion and calendering capacity. It employs about 50 in a 72,000-square-foot plant.
Chakrabarti left PPG in 1994 to
get into his own business, Brear-ton said.
His first move was to buy Polymer Products, a Stocker-town, Pa., compounder specializing in flame retardants and antistatic formulations.
Last summer, Chakrabarti bought Crystal Plastics, a performance chemical producer in Allentown, Pa.
Brearton said Chakrabarti continues on the acquisition trail and has ambitions to build a group of companies into a Fortune 500 candidate.
Brearton said the 55-year-old Chakrabarti got his doctor of science degree at age 24 from Calcutta University and claims to hold several dozen patents. His interests include economic theories that he hopes to prove by running his own business.
