|
Modesto-based firm strikes gold in chemicals
Nov 29, 2009 (The Modesto Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Modesto's Enviro Tech Chemical Services Inc. is a rarity these days.
It is hiring more employees, expanding its product line, building new facilities and rapidly growing its revenues.
The privately owned company has found a lucrative niche: inventing and manufacturing environmentally friendly chemicals to preserve and protect food from dangerous bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella.
"What we're really good at is innovation. We have an R&D staff that is second to none," said Michael S. Harvey, who founded Enviro Tech in 1991. He is the company's president, chief executive officer and largest shareholder.
Harvey said his research and development team has invented various chemicals and processes with patents and approvals from the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency.
Those new products have started hitting the market, and sales are soaring.
Harvey said revenue has grown 35 percent annually for the past three years, pushing the company's income "way north of $20 million a year." About 15 percent of that revenue comes from exporting products abroad.
"Right now we're on a roll, and we still have quite a few more products in the pipeline (awaiting government approval)," said Harvey, 58, who grew up in Tracy and earned his college degree in agricultural chemistry.
One of those new products is a patent-pending bromine biocide named HB-2, which is expected to be approved by the FDA in January. Harvey said it is a certified organic product that will be used to wash beef carcasses because it is effective at killing E. coli bacteria on hides.
"We have a contract with one of the three largest beef producers in this country," said Harvey, noting that the company is expected to start using HB-2 by February.
Harvey said new federal regulations have expanded the scope of recalls for any beef that could be contaminated by E. coli. Such recalls are expensive for meat producers.
"That has pushed food safety to the top of the list for producers," Harvey said.
More hiring planned
That's good news for Enviro Tech and for those looking for jobs in Modesto.
Because of HB-2 and its other new products, the company expects to expand its work force by as much as 50 percent within the next two years.
It has about 80 employees now, and it plans to hire 10 to 12 more in the next six months and as many as 40 more by the end of 2011.
"I just hired two people last Friday (Nov. 20)," said Cindy Harvey, Michael's wife and the head of Enviro Tech's human resources and other administrative departments. "We had 400 applicants for those jobs, and they were such highly qualified, educated people."
Although the company's most recent hires were for lower-paid, unskilled starting positions, Michael Harvey said his company prides itself on offering good wages and benefits.
Its annual payroll is about $4 million, plus $1 million for employee benefits, including health insurance and a retirement program.
Harvey said his average salaried employee makes $60,000 to $70,000 a year, while skilled workers earn $40,000 to $50,000 and unskilled workers can earn $18 to $19 an hour.
"We share 4 percent of company profits with employees," Harvey said.
What those employees do at Enviro Tech is diverse.
The company manufactures more than 1,000 products, most of which have been made for many years. That includes assorted basic products that Harvey said have low profit margins.
"We don't need that part of the business because it doesn't make much money, but it keeps a lot of people employed so we continue it," Harvey said.
Killing salmonella organically
Newer food safety products are generating the growth.
Those include peracetic acid, which Harvey described as "oxygenated vinegar." It is a potent microbiocide that is certified as an organic way to kill salmonella bacteria on vegetables and poultry. After being sprayed on food, it does its job, then safely degrades into carbon dioxide and water.
Harvey said his company is the only producer of peracetic acid in California.
That product also is used in Enviro Tech's antimicrobial ice, which is packed around fish and seafood.
"It inhibits the bacteria that causes the decaying process," said Harvey, noting that the ice extends the shelf life of seafood by one week.
One of the company's other products is sodium hexametaphosphate, which is the ingredient that makes mozzarella cheese stringy. "We sell millions and millions of pounds of it," Harvey said.
A new product Harvey is confident will become a big seller is "Earth-friendly bleach," which decays into a safe form of fertilizer rather than an environmentally damaging salt as does regular bleach. He said the EPA is expected to approve that product in about four months.
Getting through the government approval process takes as long as three years. Enviro Tech has 13 EPA-registered products, which Harvey said cost an average of $800,000 each to get approved.
"That's a severe financial barrier," Harvey said. It's also time-consuming. "Everything we're bringing to market now was invented in 2007."
Keeping new projects coming
Despite the cost, Harvey said his company has been focusing on and heavily investing in research and development the past seven years. He said he wants to keep innovating so his company continually will have new products working their way through the pipeline.
To make that happen, Harvey said he typically works 60 to 80 hours per week.
"My real forte is guiding the R&D," Harvey said. "On weekends when no one is here, I'm in the lab tinkering."
Companies that tinker with chemicals, however, are not particularly popular in California. Harvey said that eight years ago there were about 473 companies manufacturing chemicals in the state. Only about 52 remain.
"They just fled California," Harvey said of his competitors. Too many Californians "think of chemical companies as an enemy to the environment and negative to their health."
Harvey said harassment from state bureaucracy and onerous laws are to blame for the loss of jobs in his industry.
"California is inflexible in dealing with (chemical companies). State regulators try to find something wrong just so they can write you a ticket and fine you thousands of dollars," Harvey said. "But we love Modesto, and we're not going to let these agencies drive us out of here."
Bee staff writer J.N. Sbranti can be reached at jsbranti@modbee.com or 578-2196.
To see more of The Modesto Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.modbee.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, The Modesto Bee, Calif. Distributed
by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Activate Email 
TMCnet LOGIN
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, October 4-6, 2010. Los Angeles, CA.
