Slack Chemical expands with new facility in Saratoga Springs

CARTHAGE — Expansion seems to be the name of the game for Slack Chemical Co., Inc., of Carthage, which recently opened a new 26,000-square-foot, $2.4 million plant in Saratoga Springs.

The new facility will help the company better serve the East Coast region as well as provide necessary space for Slack to break into some new markets, company owner and President Robert Sturtz says. Slack Chemical has customers across New York as well as New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Ontario, Canada.

Munter Enterprises, Inc., of Middle Grove (Saratoga County), built the facility as a turnkey operation in the W.J. Grande Industrial Park in Saratoga Springs. Between 30 percent and 40 percent of the total project cost went toward the seven-acre site’s infrastructure, according to Sturtz. Slack Chemical took ownership of the building at the end of December and has occupied the structure since the beginning of this year.

“It’s built quite versatile,” Sturtz says of the new facility. As a chemical distributor, warehouse, and re-packager, Slack needs facilities that can contain spills and provide spaces for all different types of mixing processes, he says.

Sturtz bought Slack Chemical in 1987, when it generated about $3 million in annual sales and did the bulk of its business selling chemicals to paper mills in northern New York. As those mills began to close, “we had to do something,” Sturtz says. His answer was diversification, and now Slack sells chemicals to a variety of industries. The paper industry now comprises just 8 or 9 percent of Slack’s total business, he says.

Other sectors the company serves are municipal-water treatment, dairy (primarily cheese-production plants), swimming pools, co-generation facilities, and the wholesale ice-melt business.

“It gives us a bit of stability because it isn’t coming from all one industry,” Sturtz says of his company’s diverse customer base these days.

He’s hoping to expand that diversity even more with the new Saratoga Springs structure, which includes 20,000 square feet of operating space and 6,000 square feet of labs and office space.

Sturtz hopes to tap into the food-grade blending market, beyond what Slack Chemical already does for cheese plants. “We didn’t have the proper facility to offer that,” he says. The new building offers that capability now.

The new building is also fairly close to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering’s NanoTech Complex, providing opportunity to build sales in that market, Sturtz says. “We do some business with them, and there is more to be done,” he adds.

Slack Chemical’s expansion isn’t done with the Saratoga Springs project. The company is currently renovating and expanding the former Climax Manufacturing Co. factory in Castorland in Lewis County. Slack owns the facility, which used to produce wooden and paper boxes. Some portion of the plant was destroyed by fire years ago, Sturtz says, but the company still has about 125,000 square feet of space there. In addition, Slack is adding 10,000 square feet of new warehousing space.

“We’ll probably be doing some more expanding there in the coming years, as well,” Sturtz says.

Between the additional warehouse space and the new Saratoga Springs facility, Sturtz hopes to see Slack Chemical’s sales grow about 11 percent this year to reach $40 million.

The company employs about 100 people during the summer months and about 85 in the winter, including 12 salespeople.

Headquartered at 4655 Clinton St. in Carthage, Slack Chemical (www.slackchem.com) has more than 200,000 square feet of warehouse space, more than 65 bulk storage vessels, and a fleet including 30 tankers for delivery.

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