SPARTECH RIDING WAVE OF FUTURE WITH NEW PRODUCTS THAT UTILIZE PLASTICS

In the 1960s classic movie "The Graduate," recent college graduate Dustin Hoffman was told that the secret to a successful future was in plastics.

That prediction was right on target.

Since the 1960s, plastics manufacturers have marketed their products to everyone from appliance makers to food packagers to auto manufacturers. Items once made of or packaged in steel, wood or glass can often be found today in some form of plastic, and a growing number of companies are purchasing that plastic from Spartech Corporation.

"You never see our name on any products because we're just the middle guy," said Bradley Buechler, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Spartech. "Since you don't see the Spartech name on the end product, a lot of people don't even realize we're involved."

In fact, Spartech is a leading producer of thermoplastic materials, polymeric compounds and molded and profile products for some 5,000 customers, including Igloo, John Deere, McDonald's, Dannon Group and Winnebago. The company's plastic products are used to make outdoor signs, food containers, lawnmower wheels and numerous other end products.

In all, 3,400 employees work in 44 plants, including two in Cape Girardeau. Within a week, nine other plants will be acquired by Spartech, bringing the employee total up to about 4,200.

Some 150 employees work in two Cape Girardeau plants. In the extruded sheet and rollstock plant, pellets received from primary plastic companies are transformed to sheets of varying thicknesses that are used by other companies to make end products.

In the polycom plant, ingredients are added to the pellets and shipped to other companies for creation of specialty products.

Buechler said Spartech has a large number of facilities because it takes a regional approach to sales. Customers typically have little storage room, so plants must be able to supply orders within weeks, he said. Most Spartech plants ship orders within a 500-mile radius of the facility.

"We need to be relatively close to our customers because freight costs would be noncompetitive over long distances," Buechler said. "It is a very regional market."

He said he expects the market to continue a recent consolidation trend for the next five years. Pioneers in the industry are reaching retirement age, and many are opting to sell their companies, which is why Spartech has experienced phenomenal growth. By 2005, the industry will have consolidated from some 3,000 smaller companies to about 1,000 large companies that vie for continued growth as plastics replace steel, wood and other components in products.

"Since the '60s to 2000 it's been growing just because there's been so many opportunities out there," Buechler said. "That should continue for about the next five years, but then I think we'll have to start working a little harder."