IntegriCo's new CEO outlines vision for composite railroad tie maker

A composite railroad tie maker in Louisiana with new management is looking to the past to help chart a course for the future.

Sarepta, La.-based IntegriCo Composites Inc. has installed new management and brought back a familiar face as it looks to even out the business following disruptions during the past couple of years.

IntegriCo is now operating one shift five days a week with 50 employees after a series of stops and starts brought on by the challenges of COVID-19 during the past couple of years, CEO Doug Fox said in a recent interview.

Fox was brought in by owners Purchase Capital LLC to both help stabilize the business and ultimately expand operations.

IntegriCo has been making composite railroad ties from Nos. 3 through 7 plastics since 2007, receiving bales of the mixed plastics as feedstock. The company shreds the material, uses heat and compression to create not only railroad ties but similar products used as ground mats for equipment used at oil drilling locations.

Fox previously was a consultant to IntegriCo and came out of retirement after a career in the railroad industry to now lead the company. He also brought back Ken Webber as general manager who was responsible for developing the company's composite formula.

Fox and Webber are now part of a revamped management team providing more operational experience to help restore and ultimately expand operations, the CEO said.

"We've been working on building the processes around making sure our quality is second-to-none," Fox said. "Put the business practices in place, accounting processes in place. All the things you need to get it back up and going."

This included additional investment by Purchase Capital, which acquired IntegriCo in 2019 just in time for COVID-19, to make improvements at the facility.

"Before that time, a lot of the equipment had worn down and hadn't been looked after. So we've replenished and put new equipment in place," Fox said.

COVID-19 brought a set of challenges that caused the company to repeatedly stop and restart operations during 2020 and 2021. "I think it's called limping along. They were trying to start up in spurts," he said. "What we were missing was a focus on the actual product and how we could produce the best quality."

But now the company is using about 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of recycled plastics each day, sourcing from material recovery facilities in the East and Midwest.

IntegriCo has built up its management team to include more people with production knowledge, including the return of Webber and his institutional knowledge to help restore the business.

"I have always believed in IntegriCo's proprietary technology and how it could greatly benefit our environment as well as the end user," Webber said in a statement. "It became clear to me that the right management team was now in place to move the company forward with their vision and expertise."

Also new to the company's management is Finance Director Glenn Jackson. He joins Chief Operating Officer Scott Stewart, who joined the firm in 2020, and Vice President of Sales Scott Moe, who has been with the firm since 2015.

One challenge for IntegriCo has been an overreliance on one customer, and part of the CEO's job is to diversify both the product offering and customer base, Fox said.

"We were going along, but we were not going anywhere fast," he said. "We needed to put a structure in place that's familiar with manufacturing, sales."

IntegriCo does not have to conquer the entire railroad tie market to be successful, Fox said. Instead, the company can find niches in the market where plastic applications make most sense.

IntegriCo's compression molding approach is about 50 percent more expensive than traditional wooden railroad ties. But the product looks to have a significantly longer shelf life which then makes them an attractive option in the long run. IntegriCo also is less expensive than other plastic railroad tie makers that use an extrusion process, the CEO said.

"It's more working through processes and tooling and getting the plant to where we want it to be. That's what we've been concentrating on. We want to walk before we run," he said.

"The interesting thing is IntegriCo has a cost advantage and a process advantage, which is why I like the product and the process. We can use all different types of plastics," he said.