Three years after it was created to commercialize lubricants made from soybean oil, Environmental Lubricants Manufacturing Inc. has moved out of its quarters at a University of Northern Iowa laboratory and into its own manufacturing facility in Plainfield, Iowa.
Officials said the company needed to move because its products have begun to penetrate the market. In fact, they said, the company is growing so fast it could turn a profit by next summer.
We didnt do much [in terms of production] the first couple years because so much work went into product development and marketing, Director Jorgen Heidemann said during a telephone interview. But now things are really starting to take off.
Now that it has its own production facility, ELM needs an infusion of cash. Heidemann said officials are in discussions with several potential investors to raise approximately $750,000 for operations. The funds are needed to cover the four-month lag from the time it purchases soybeans until it can blend and deliver its lubes and receive payment.
The plant in Plainfield, located approximately 10 miles north of Northern Iowas Waverly campus, is in a leased 20,000-square-foot facility with offices and capacity to produce 60 million pounds of grease and lubricating oil annually. Eight staff members moved to the site this week and production is scheduled to begin next week.
Heidemann said ELM has leased a modular building for the Plainfield site to house offices and a laboratory. The site can expand to accommodate up to 30 employees, he said.
Since its incorporation as a for-profit business in 2000 by the universitys Research Foundation and professor Lou A. T. Honary, ELM has operated out of a laboratory belonging to the schools Ag-Based Industrial Lubricant Research Program. The lab has light manufacturing equipment used to develop the products that ELM markets but nothing capable of commercial production.
According to Heidemann, ELM needs such capability now because sales of hydraulic fluids, tractor trailer greases and cutting oils have begun to take off. The company had sales of approximately $750,000 during its most recent fiscal year, which ended during the summer. It exceeded that mark during the first quarter of the current fiscal year and now has a backlog of orders for another $2 million.
Its just growing by leaps and bounds, Heidemann said. If this continues, the company could be in line to make a profit next year.
ELM has also licensed a Waterloo, Iowa, soybean farm to manufacture greases used to lubricate sides of railroad tracks.