California Dreaming: OptiColor's Jennifer Bryan meets career goal by acquiring the firm

Manufacturing veteran Jennifer Bryan has acquired OptiColor Inc., the compounding firm that she joined in 2012.

Bryan bought Huntington Beach, Calif.-based OptiColor from Daniel Neufeld, who founded the business in 1995. Bryan had been OptiColor's sales and marketing manager and now will serve as president and CEO.

"This is the cherry on top," Bryan said in a March 18 interview with Plastics News. "I've had a career goal of owning my own company."

OptiColor makes compounds based on polycarbonate, acrylic, nylon and other engineering resins for eyewear, medical, lighting and similar markets. The firm employs 35 at a 22,000-square-foot location and has annual sales of between $10 million and $15 million.

Neufeld is retiring after a total of more than 45 years in the plastics industry.

"We want to continue the journey that Dan [Neufeld] started," Bryan said. "We want to grow as a company and double in size."

OptiColor specializes in formulating optical-grade materials, eyewear frame materials that include ballistic high impact, and sustainable resins and medical grades that excel in quality and clarity.

Bryan joined OptiColor in 2012 and has a lengthy history in the plastics and metals market. Her father, Gary Bryan, worked in plastics for many years before retiring as vice president of operations at compounder Chroma Corp. in McHenry, Ill. Jennifer Bryan worked there briefly — "I remember making color chips," she said — then spent 21 years in the metals market before returning to plastics.

OptiColor now is planning to install a new single-screw extrusion line later this year, Bryan said. The firm already operates four single-screw and one twin-screw line.