Resin market veteran Jeff Martin has launched his own resin distribution firm: Ipex Specialty Products Inc.
Hudson-based Ipex opened for business Sept. 15. The firm offers generic prime and wide-spec grades of polypropylene, polyethylene and polystyrene, as well as filled PP compounds, in rail-car, bulk truck and box quantities.
Ipex has a warehouse in Pennsylvania and uses public warehousing in Akron, Ohio. The firm is looking to add a public warehouse in the Southeast, Martin said in an Oct. 8 phone interview.
Martin has more than 30 years of plastics experience, including the last two working with the distribution business of A. Schulman Inc. of Fairlawn, Ohio.
“What we're seeing now is a lot of [distribution] competitors getting really conservative because of the bottom falling out of the commodities market last fall,” Martin said. “Processors need more outlets.”
He added that the distribution market “is seeing more opportunities as the resin companies scale back.”
Initially, Ipex will target the East. Ipex employs five sales representatives and is looking to add five more, Martin said.
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