Teknor Apex sees growth in sustainable materials

ORLANDO, Fla.—As it enters its 100th year, Teknor Apex Co. is seeing increased interest in sustainable materials.

"Our customers are looking for sustainability," CEO Don Wiseman said at NPE2024 in Orlando. "We can offer them circular materials and also bio-based products."

He added that Teknor Apex is working on new recycling technologies at its headquarters in Pawtucket, R.I., but those aren't yet close to full commercialization.

The firm also is looking to stay current in year 100.

"We're refreshing our brand and doing surveys with our customers to make sure we're aligned with the market," the CEO said.

Also at NPE2024, Teknor Apex highlighted its partnership with sustainable products maker UBQ Materials. The two firms have worked together since 2022 and are launching product development leveraging UBQ's new Sustainable Product Portfolio. That portfolio is focused on durables, from industrial to consumer applications.

"Our first 100 years of plastics innovation were motivated by a strong sense of environmental and social responsibility along with meeting the functional requirements defined by our customers," Wiseman said in a news release. "As we look to the next century of material innovation, sustainability is at the forefront."

In late 2023, Teknor Apex commercialized new grades of Sarlink-brand thermoplastic vulcanizate that contain up to 40 percent post-industrial recyclate. Those materials are aimed at automotive applications requiring superior elasticity and long-term performance, as a recyclable, lightweight alternative to EPDM rubber.

Wiseman joined Teknor Apex in September 2023 as CEO, replacing Jonathan Fain, who had been with the company, founded by his grandfather, for 51 years. Wiseman has almost 30 years of industry experience, most recently as CEO of compounder Star Plastics in Ravenswood, W.Va.

At NPE2024, Wiseman said he joined Teknor Apex because of its market-leading positions as well as its "long-term vision, great people and great customers."

Looking to the rest of 2024, Wiseman said that sales trends "are a little bit all over" but that Teknor Apex is seeing "the strongest push" in consumer goods such as electronics and durables and is "getting good traction" in automotive.

Teknor Apex is family-owned and was founded by Fain's grandfather, Alfred Fain, in 1924 as Apex Tire & Rubber Co. When Jonathan Fain's father, Norman Fain, went to work with his father, Alfred, in 1936, the firm was primarily a tire recapping company. In 1945, it started a custom rubber mixing business, and in 1949 it began production of PVC compounds.

In 1968, Norman Fain became chairman of the company. It was renamed Teknor Apex, and in 1972 Jonathan Fain joined the family business.

Teknor Apex is one of North America's 30 largest compounders and concentrate makers. The firm operates 13 plants worldwide in the U.S., Belgium, Germany, China and Singapore, and it has annual sales of more than $1 billion. Its products include PVC compounds, thermoplastic elastomers and engineering resin compounds, as well as garden hoses.