Steady growth has led Chase Plastics Services Inc. to seek out more elbow room in Clarkston, Mich.
The Clarkston-based firm, which specializes in distribution of engineering resins, broke ground in November on a 42,000-square-foot office building. Previously the business had used a rented 9,200-square-foot space nearby, President Kevin Chase said recently by phone.
The new building will house 30 employees of Chase Plastics and Alden Trucking, a Chase-owned unit that operates 15 semi-tractor trailers.
In addition, the company added about 35,000 square feet in early 2006 at its warehouse in South Bend, Ind. That warehouse now covers 90,000 square feet and includes a color concentrates blending operation.
Chase invested a total of $4.5 million in the new office building - which will open in September - and the South Bend warehouse expansion.
The firm has grown as a result of a five-year plan Kevin Chase said he put together in early 2004, with a goal of becoming a national supplier. Since then, Chase has added full-time sales reps in California, New England and the Southeast. The firm also has added warehousing in Texas and uses 22 public warehouses nationwide.
``We had to grow,'' Chase said. ``Our suppliers required growth, and if we didn't do it, someone else would. We now consider ourselves a national distributor, but we can still act like a regional. We've got a two-hour call-back policy for any customer request.''
Chase Plastics now offers mainstream grades of polycarbonate and nylon as well as copolyesters, urethanes, styrenic block copolymers and flexible nylon resins from a field of 25 suppliers. Recent additions to its lineup include specialty compounds from Medina, Ohio-based Ovation Polymers Inc. and specialty grades of polypropylene from Phillips Sumika Polypropylene Co. of Houston.
The firm now employs a total of 80 and expects to post sales of $100 million to 110 million in 2007 after bringing in $90 million to 100 million in 2006.
Recent growth has been a challenge and an adventure for Kevin Chase, who began his distribution career with Borg-Warner Inc.'s Plastic Service Centers unit in 1983 before going on his own in 1992. Chase and his wife, Carol, now are the largest investors in the firm that bears his name.
``We're committed to bringing outrageous service to our customers,'' he said.
