Compounder ECM expands color lab
WORCESTER, MASS. - Custom compounder ECM Plastics Inc is redesigning and expanding its color development laboratory as part of the final phase of recent renovations of its 120,000-square-foot facility in Worcester.
The changes in the color lab, which include room for a new molding machine, should be completed in March, said President Wayne Marquis. He added that work on office space, as well as the addition of an FTIR spectrometer, will be completed in spring.
``It will mean better service and quicker turnaround. Our business is still growing,'' Marquis said in a telephone interview.
He said that personal-care applications and special-effect colorants, as well as color concentrates in general, have been growth areas. Marquis said that the firm had double-digit growth last year in sales, and he expects double-digit growth this year. He did not disclose details.
ECM Plastics has 14 extrusion lines with about 74 million pounds of capacity. The company added 12 employees during the course of 2002 to push its total to 90. Marquis expects to add five more this year.
He did not disclose the cost of expansion.
Zoltek refinancing bodes well for firm
ST. LOUIS - Zoltek Cos. Inc. completed an $8 million refinancing package Feb. 18 that it said should ensure the survival of the St. Louis-based fiber supplier.
In mid-January the firm's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, raised doubt about Zoltek's ability to continue as a going concern.
The refinancing package ``represents a vote of confidence in the future of Zoltek'' and ``means that Zoltek should have the working capital it needs over approximately the next two years to continue to invest in major application developments in the automotive, wind-energy and other fields,'' said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Zsolt Rumy.
Zoltek, which trades on the Nasdaq National Market, reported a loss of $3.2 million on sales of nearly $17 million for its first quarter, ended Dec. 31. The comparable year-earlier quarter had a loss of $4.4 million on sales of $16.6 million.
Zoltek units focus on uses of carbon fibers and oxidized acrylic fibers.
``Zoltek is much more a development company than an operating company,'' Rumy noted. ``Most of our activities and ... spending are directed to major application developments - to the generation of future, as opposed to current, revenues and earnings.''
Civiera & Silver under new name, ownership
HOLDEN, MASS. - Recycled plastics broker Civiera & Silver International Inc. will change its name and ownership effective March 1.
The Holden company will become CSIPlastics Inc. President Steven Silver will own all shares of the company after buying for undisclosed terms the stake held by the Civiera family.
CSIPlastics will continue importing and exporting engineering plastics and fluoropolymers, Silver said in a telephone interview. He predicts the firm's sales this year will reach $3 million.