CLARION LEDGER
By Reuben Mees, Hattiesburg American
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
PLASTICS PLANT UNVEILS ITS $2.3M EXPANSION,
PLANS TO DOUBLE ITS WORK FORCE
When biologists think about Mississippi's uniqueness, they probably think of the Mississippi sandhill crane, Yazoo darter or Camp Shelby burrowing crawfish.For food buffs it may be comeback sauce or muscadine wine.
But in the industrial world, the state's unique product is quickly becoming POSS, or Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane.
Much like the burrowing crawfish, POSS, a silicon-based molecule measured in nanometers - or billionths of a meter - is exclusive to the Hattiesburg area. And the patent-holding manufacturers at Hybrid Plastics told a group of federal and state leaders Monday it is their goal to keep it that way.
"Everyone across the world is buying POSS - a technology made here in Mississippi and it can't be made anywhere else in the world," Hybrid President and co-founder Joe Lichtenhan said. "That's going to guarantee us a place in global technology."
His comments came at a ribbon-cutting event to unveil the $2.3 million, 15,000-square-foot expansion that will allow the company to increase its production five-fold to nearly a ton of material a year and double the current 30 employees. ...
Lichtenhan said Hybrid is also in the process of building an additional $2.8 million expansion that will allow them to manufacture up to 500 tons a year of a lower purity product that can be used in less sensitive applications. And that would keep the technology in Mississippi.
"If we don't demonstrate a capacity to manufacture a certain volume, then our customers will want to foreign source the manufacturing process," Lichtenhan said. "That's what Hybrid doesn't want to see happen. We've got 15 to 16 acres of land to build on and we want to keep the know-how here in Mississippi."
Hybrid moved from California to Hattiesburg in 2004 largely because of former University of Southern Mississippi president Shelby Thames' aggressive marketing of the university's polymer science program and new economic incentives created by Gov. Haley Barbour, the company president said.
"This represents a major increase in their manufacturing capacity and it's going to lead to the establishment in Mississippi of other high-tech industries," U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran said, listing off a variety of uses including U.S. Defense Department applications. "Hybrid Plastics is a great example of the type of company we want in Mississippi."
Barbour said he has watched computer technology shrink from behemoth machines capable of performing basic functions to complex devices that fit in a person's pocket.
"I won't pretend to understand nanotechnology but it is a pretty obvious extension of the miniaturization of technology that has been going on since World War II," he said.
Barbour said the average salary for Hybrid's employees is $90,000.
... And it will be the role of local economic leaders to create the kind of environment that is appealing to both companies and the employees they bring with them or wish to harvest from the region's educational institutions, Area Development Partnership President Angie Godwin said.
"It goes back to our 360-degree view of economic development," she said. "We have to make sure we round out all the pieces. The burden is on us to leverage all our assets to draw more companies like Hybrid." ...
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