Bolder Industries Pursues Growth Initiatives Amid Economic Downturn

Investments in infrastructure and team keep pace with growth

Bolder Industries has been on a growth curve for the last eighteen months, Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, the recovered carbon black and petrochemical extraction pioneer, has seen uptime, quality, consistency, operating costs and sales of all products rise to commercial scale.

Its signature BolderBlack® recovered carbon has made its way into more than 300 products ranging from tires to construction materials to waste containers.

What Bolder didn’t see coming was the recent spike in demand for custom formulas.

“We expected that things would level-off during COVID-19. Instead, the casualness and quick connectivity of video-chat-meetings have accelerated conversations with brands looking to innovate and tell a new story,” Bolder Industries’ CEO Tony Wibbeler said.

This new story focuses on responsible resources, he said. “The new dialog isn’t about ‘eco’ and ‘sustainable’ as much as it is about the thoughtful use of what we’ve rediscovered as the resourceful use of the materials we already have,” Wibbeler said.

Nearly anything that is black plastic or rubber can use BolderBlack® as a sustainable alternative to virgin carbon black. According to Wibbeler, the commercialization of BolderBlack rCB makes it easier for companies to commit to a sustainable alternative.

To keep pace with the growth, Bolder is investing in infrastructure and team, Wibbeler said.

Investments, he said, expand opportunities for rubber, plastics, and oil markets to use responsibly sourced alternative materials without sacrificing performance while reducing cost.

Bolder Industries increased investment in technical expertise, physical lab space, and its leadership team based on the success of its pilot programs.

One of these pilot programs involved production trials with Elite Elastomers, an Applicative Compounder, based in Ripley, MO to investigate the use of alternative material in traditional rubber compounds. The trial provided the foundation for Bolder and Elite to successfully compound a consistent product using BolderBlack rCB and led to a partnership between the companies. As a result, Elite Elastomers can check its own sustainability ‘boxes’ and provide that platform for customers, Ginger Glidewell, Technical Director at Elite Elastomers Inc. said. Together the companies bring design options to the U.S. market that were never before available, she said.

Bolder Industries has built a full-scale rubber development laboratory in Punta Gorda, Florida, led by Mike Kumbalek, who has more than 45 years experience in industrial rubber compounding and was Bolder’s first customer.

Recent additions to the Bolder team bolster the company’s leadership and strategic positioning, Wibbeler said. These include Dave Abdallah, who spent 21 years at Bridgestone with experience in tire compounding, process engineering and recovered carbon black sales. Giovanni Michetti joins Bolder with more than 30 years of black masterbatch experience to add plastics expertise.

Most recently, Bolder partnered with Swan Chemical, Inc., a subsidiary of Thomas Swan Ltd., to increase distribution of BolderBlack® rCB.

© Scrap Tire News, June 2020