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Cantar/Polyair Positions for Expansion
By George Nelson YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Cantar/Polyair Corp.'s Youngstown plant is positioned for growth. The company is just waiting for market conditions to improve."We have space here to literally double the size of this facility and we have plans already drawn up to go into what I would call Phase Two," said Gary Crandall, president of the Cantar division. "There's nothing that's hard or etched in stone, but we're right on the edge of making that type of decision.We have a great labor force here, it's a very good environment for us, and if we do expand we'd be lucky and happy to expand in Youngstown." Cantar, the original company founded in 1968, manufactures swimming pool accessories such as the vinyl pool liners and winter covers manufactured in Youngstown. The Polyair Inter Pack Inc. Division makes packaging materials such as bubble wrap and foam sheeting. On Tuesday Crandall led about three dozen people on a tour of the plant in Youngstown's Performance Place, which has been operating since 1996.A Champion native, Crandall joined the company as a salesman for Cantar -- originally known as Canadian Tarpaulin -- in 1980. The company, which made bubble solar blankets and winter covers for swimming pools, opened its first U.S. factory in 1983. When the company decided in 1988 to begin manufacturing a new type of pool cover, Crandall -- by then vice president of operations -- rented a 15,000-square-foot space in Warren "and didn't know what we would do with all that space." The company outgrew it in two years, however, and moved to a 65,000-square-foot building on Crescent Street in Youngstown -- and Crandall was again convinced he had bankrupted the company. By 1993 the company was looking to grow again.Around the same time, the packaging side of the business started to take off. Cantar had initially entered the market as a way to use its existing bubble equipment during the off-season for pool supplies. "It seemed like a very bright idea, but what we quickly learned was the packing business was a 12-month business. You couldn't be in the business seven months a year," Crandall recalled. Company officials also decided they needed to start manufacturing their own foam sheeting -- until that point they had been purchasing it from another suppler. At the time, however, the company's balance sheet wouldn't support its growth, so Crandall contacted Youngstown Mayor Patrick Ungaro in late 1993. Crandall said Ungaro and his economic development team met with him the next morning and they said they would try to find a way to get the project done. "They held firm to their word to the absolute letter," he said. The city and the state of Ohio each provided loans of $2.5 million, and the city also backed $4.5 million in industrial revenue bonds, with the company investing $1 million. "They also deferred payments for us for three years," Crandall said. "That was really the launching pad for our business. We started the foam business here, we were able to build this facility , and subsequently we're one of the success stories that Youngstown often cites." The company repaid its loans four years early and has kept employment around 200 as promised. "Basically, they did what they said they would do, we did everything we said we would do, and here we are today." Pool liners and covers -- including a new automatic cover Crandall displayed -- are made by Cantar in Youngstown, as well as other accessories such as rafts. The Polyair division makes rolls of foam sheeting in Youngstown. Pool products manufactured at the Youngstown facility are shipped around the world. Crandall said production of the custom-made liners can't be automated, which he sees as an advantage. "I like processes that are labor intensive because if they are labor intensive we don't have the competition as heavily from Asia," he explained. "They have to be manufactured and shipped within a short period of time, which takes Asia out of the equation. I like that. It's job security for our folks here."Materials from the packaging division in Youngstown ship as far as Chicago. Crandall said packaging is seeing growth due to expansion of e-commerce in recent years. "Every time Amazon.com ships a book it goes into our packaging," he said. Other packaging customers include BarnesandNoble.com, Staples and Office Depot.A publicly traded company since 1996, Cantar/Polyair has grown to 13 plants in North America -- four in Canada, with the balance in the United States -- and earlier this year acquired the U.S. and Canadian operations of Jacuzzi.With sales of $204 million for 2003, Crandall hopes to build the company to $300 million or $400 million. Donald A. Rodenbaugh Sr., senior vice president and investment officer with Wachovia Securities in Canfield, said he was impressed with what he saw during the tour. "Youngstown needs a lot more of Gary Crandall and Cantar/Polyair in order to grow and increase its tax base," he said. He said Crandall had contacted him about inviting some of his clients to tour the Youngstown plant. "They had no idea that this operation existed or even was in Youngstown," he said.Contact George Nelson at [email protected] "