Brightfish Recycled Plastics Inc. is expanding beyond its roots in northeast Ohio and surrounding states.
Partners Tim Fisher and Mike Fullbright want to target the Southeast, Texas and a broader swath of the Midwest. Fisher said the company expects to expand from five employees to eight this year.
Brightfish focuses on post-industrial scrap. The company buys from plastics processors and a few brokers, Fisher said.
The recycling business went through the same ``craziness'' that hit virgin materials last year, with hurricanes and the jump in the price of oil and natural gas, Fisher said. The price of recycled materials also went up, but they were harder to find, he said.
``It's still turbulent, but it's settled down,'' Fisher said. Prices are still high, but post-industrial material is more available.
Fisher and Fullbright worked at the former Horizon Plastics Inc., a recycled plastics company in Fairlawn, Ohio. That company ceased operations last fall, as Fisher and his partner in Horizon, Russ Sharnsky, went in different directions.
Sharnsky has started Polymer Chain Inc. in Fairlawn, a company that buys and sells post-industrial scrap and also sells custom compounds.
Besides expanding geographically, Fisher said Brightfish Recycled Plastics is using the Internet to update its list of materials available and materials wanted.
Brightfish stores some of the recycled plastics in an Akron warehouse and also brokers material.
``With our experience with Horizon, we're a lot more smarter and more aggressive now,'' Fisher said in an interview.
Fisher is a former sales manager at Multibase Inc., a compounder in Copley, Ohio. He also worked at custom molder G.I. Plastek and Cleveland compounder Ferro Corp.
Fullbright was foreman and plant manager at Multibase. He also worked at Horizon Plastics.