By Paul Morden From www.theobserver.ca The Observer
A Toronto-based bio-tech company is moving its pilot plant to Sarnia’s Western Research Park, with an eye on expanding in the community.
GreenCore Composites has been manufacturing natural fibre reinforced thermoplastic materials at a Mississauga pilot plant that is relocating to the research park off Modeland Road.
“It’s actually getting installed as we speak,” said research park director Paul Paolatto.
GreenCore will use about 3,500 square feet in the research park and boost the current total use of the site’s pilot plant area to about 75% of capacity, Paolatto said.
“We’re really pleased, considering that about a year ago the pilot plant affectively sat empty.”
GreenCore is the third pilot plant tenant at the park and “the fourth marquee prospect to come to Sarnia,” Paolatto said.
He includes Bio-Amber, a company with offices at the research park, in that group.
A $300,000 loan arranged by the Sarnia-Lambton Business Development Corporation is helping GreenCore with the move.
GreenCore president Geoff Clarke said the pilot plant, set up in shared space in Mississauga several years ago, was the company’s first step in commercializing technology licensed from the University of Toronto.
But it was time to move, he said.
“We needed to get into a different environment, a facility with more space because we are looking at adding another line in the later part of this year.”
Clarke said they settled on the Western Research Park in Sarnia after looking at locations the Toronto area, as well as south and southwestern Ontario.
“We felt the best opportunity for us was in Sarnia,” he said.
“Sarnia has got a bit of a reputation for the bio-materials side of the technology.”
It’s also close to the automotive industry, one of the markets the company is targeting.
Clarke said the expanded pilot plant is expected to be operating by mid-May in Sarnia and will initially employ three people.
The additional line planned for later in the year is expected to increase that by up to 15.
Eventually, the company is expected to develop to the point where it will move to a stand-alone facility, he said.
“I’m sure it will be somewhere else in the Sarnia area.”
The company is in the early stages of development but it plans to have a strong sales base in Canada and the U.S., as well as arranging to serve customers overseas, he said.
“We’re looking forward to the next year or two to make all this happen.”
Paolatto said GreenCore decision to come to the research park “reflects well on the promising opportunities that are starting to unfold as a result of the work that has gone on in that investment.”
GreenCore is an example of the focus the research park puts on recruiting tenants with the potential to expand in the community, he said.
“We get them for the short-term and we hope to keep them for the long-term.”