Berks Startup Hopes to Pulverize Competition with Micronizing
Smaller is better especially when it comes to powdered materials. That is the vision of Gregory J. Shemanski, president of a startup company called Custom Processing Services Inc., and his partner, Jeffrey Klinger, the company's vice president. The partners recently opened for business in a 36,000 square foot, leased manufacturing space in Exeter Township.
"I have been involved with grinding for about 20 years," says Shemanski, who has worked for a number of companies, including firms that make pulverizing equipment and in the field of micronizing Custom Processing Services' specialty.
Shemanski, born in Easton but a lifelong Berks County resident, says the idea behind the company is to grind materials as finely as possible, which opens up a variety of potential markets, including flame retardant, plastics, food, pharmaceuticals and paints.
The company just hired a few employees, Shemanski says, adding that he is in the process of hiring three or four more people, with additional staff to be brought on early next year. When fully operational, he expects to have 18 workers.
To start the firm, Shemanski quit a high powered job two years ago as vice president of North American operations for Houston based Wedco, a company that provides a full range of grinding services, from micronizing to coarser work. The 41 year old commuted to the company's Asbury, N.J., plant.
After he quit, he incorporated the new company "and did nothing but work at this," Shemanski says. "That's how much I believe in this. And then my partner came in about a year ago when I realized I needed one." Shemanski says Klinger, who turns 41 in early December and lives in Hatfield, most recently worked for Fluid Energy Processing and Equipment Co. in Hatfield, another company involved in micronizing. Between the two of them, Shemanski and Klinger bring several decades of expertise in this unusual industry to the table.
Financing the roughly $3 million startup was the toughest part, Shemanski says, to say nothing of convincing his wife, Becky, of the wisdom of taking the plunge into entrepreneurship. He and Klinger used a combination of personal funds, a private bank loan, money from the state's Small Business First Fund, the state Machinery and Equipment Loan Fund and the Small Business Association to pull it off.
The company does not manufacture a product but rather processes other people's materials, Shemanski says. "We just take what they send us, [process it] and send it back." Even though both Shemanski and Klinger have extensive business and engineering backgrounds, Shemanski says they realized the company needed additional expertise, so it turned to the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania in Bethlehem earlier this year for an $80,000 challenge grant.
Shemanski, a Lehigh University graduate, says Ben Franklin has helped the company fine tune its business plan and avoid many of the pitfalls that await startups. While Ben Franklin is not a venture capital firm, it is known for its extensive diligence which helps lend credibility to its clients who seek financing elsewhere, says spokeswoman Laura Eppler. "Typically, we don't get a ton of startups in Reading, but we are seeing an increase there," Eppler says.
In addition to business issues, "we are working with them on the manufacturing process that reduces material to particle size," Eppler says. Penn State Berks Lehigh Valley College also is collaborating on the effort. Shemanski says a Penn State Berks' engineering professor is working with the company through June 2001 to help fine tune its operations. He says the school also is helping the new firm develop and implement statistical process control and statistical quality analysis procedures to place it at the cutting edge of quality.
Now, Shemanski says, he and Klinger finally are able to do things the way they have always wanted to, not necessarily how somebody else thinks they should be done. "I have always wanted to have my own facility," he says, adding that there have been other benefits, including a markedly shortened commute. "This is actually my first job since I have been married that I have worked in Berks County. We are going to make this work." (Reprinted from the Eastern PA Business Journal, November 27, 2000)