When it comes to water-based emulsion polymers, Mallard Creek Polymers has carved out a place for itself in the global market, which is especially impressive for a company its size.
Relatively small, especially compared to its competitors, Mallard Creek Polymers continues to grow its size and presence by prioritizing innovation and relationships, both of which serve to advance the performance, the culture, and the output of the company in the best interests of its customers, its people, and the environment.
Innovative at its core
Innovation is the continued implementation of new ideas, approaches, and products that serve to institute practical improvements and tangible benefits, and it is at the core of how Mallard Creek Polymers operates as a customer-centric partner that specializes in customization.
“Because we are so close to customers, we get a lot of opportunities to work on innovation and having more than one chemistry just creates an even deeper customer relationship, a more intense customer relationship, because they can come to us for different needs,” Markus Bieber, Director of Sales and Marketing, says of the company’s innovation strategy, which always starts with the customer and their needs.
As the company’s website states, “From small custom batches to large-scale orders, we design our processes around your requirements. Whether you’re seeking a novel formulation or refining a product line, we deliver with agility and precision.” This means wherever the polymer plays, so too does Mallard Creek, across numerous sectors. From construction, nonwovens, and adhesives to textiles, printing and packaging, paper, paints and coatings, it is remarkable how far reaching the work of the company is and the impacts it has on the everyday commodities we take for granted.
Growing its footprint and impact
With the ability to sustain such a broad range of products and applications, Mallard Creek Polymers seeks to understand the application inherently in order to provide the best possible solution for the customer. Through continued investment, an empowering culture, and expanded capabilities, the company’s customer-centric approach yields quality and sustainability, all while raising the bar for performance and what it means to be a true market leader in a sector that is undergoing transformational change.
As it stands, the polymer market is experiencing consolidation and pullbacks as larger operators are reducing their global footprints due to overcapacity. Mallard Creek Polymers, however, is doing the opposite: it is actively growing and doubling down on its commitment to sustainability.
“Closing locations, shutting down plants—they’re not able to run at the capacities they need to operate efficiently, or they have other market challenges that they simply can’t support, so from our standpoint, we view this as an opportunity,” explains Bieber.
Given the history and evolution of Mallard Creek Polymers, there is an inherent advantage in the fact that throughout its growth it has absorbed the trade secrets and intellectual property of five serious players in the market, expanding the knowledge base, technology, and expertise customers have come to rely on.
First established as a manufacturing facility by Drake Chemical Company in Charlotte, North Carolina, ownership changed hands several times before it took its current iteration in 1995 as a privately held company under the ownership of Parekh Capital Group. Renamed for the road on which it is located, the company’s specialty included the manufacture and sale of styrene-butadiene emulsion polymers, though it has since expanded into styrene acrylic and acrylic markets.
In 2018, the purchase of Ecronova Polymer GmbH in Germany, which was then established as a wholly owned subsidiary, MCP Europe GmbH, solidified the company’s presence in Europe, a strategic acquisition that has strengthened its global market position. And, further to working with partners in Europe and Asia to expand its capacity internationally, major investments have been made on the domestic front in a large warehouse distribution center as well as other strategic investments in capacity to increase volumes and output in key markets and chemistries.
Bieber notes of the Charlotte investment, “We added additional capacity which allows us to produce much larger volumes of acrylics than what we had previously been able to do. That is a focus market for us because acrylics is the largest portion of the overall polymer market that we service.”
Added capacity, added value
As a chemical manufacturer, both quality and performance start with safety, which includes people and the environment both in terms of the products manufactured and the processes employed. From research and developing to testing, the team works closely with its customers every step of the way to produce water-based polymers that satisfy the application and do so with the best interests of people and the planet at heart.
“If you look at our chemistry, we are providing water-based chemistry to the industry, and water-based polymers inherently are more sustainable than solvent-based polymers,” explains CEO, Konrad Wernthaler.
From Bieber’s perspective, “We are very much focused on being a high value supplier to our customers. If you’re supplying a commodity item that they can get from four different places, then it all just comes down to price and that’s not an area that we really want to play in because we don’t feel like we’re adding any value there.”
Instead, the goal is always to “do more,” and nowhere is this more evident than in the company’s work in Europe, where regulations are forcing customers to adopt more sustainable products and practices, which is where Mallard Creek Polymers comes in.
“We’re working on incorporating raw materials that come from nature—not oil or gas-based, but natural. I see that as a good strategy for us to continue to grow because we see demand for this in Europe. Customers are looking for it and we’d like to have more sustainable content in the product as much as we can at a decent price,” says Wernthaler of the ability to meet this goal without compromising quality and performance.
A better way forward
From the chemistries it devises to the processes it employs, Mallard Creek Polymers is a company that people want to work with and work for. The team is proud of both the performance of the products, but also the positive impact they have on the market and the environment. As Wernthaler notes, “Every employee knows why they’re here and every employee knows what they contribute, and that leads to an intrinsic motivation where people just show up,” he says.
“You feel like you’re needed; because of that, you’re motivated and because of that, you want to do your job and do a good job. It’s kind of a circle of value that you as a person bring and you immediately have the feedback that you’re bringing value,” he adds of the reinforcing cycle that the company continues to foster.
Achieving this level of success is not without its challenges, regardless of how easy Mallard Creek Polymers makes it seem. Not immune from the impacts of geopolitics and market forces beyond its control such as the pandemic, tariffs, and the ongoing war with Iran, the company’s market position and continued investment will insulate it from the storm.
While the market shifts, Mallard Creek Polymers will remain steadfast in its goals, which include remaining customer-centric, elevating its performance, and maintaining its commitment to sustainability to establish new benchmarks for the industry and for the world.
“There’s a lot more to be done,” comments Wernthaler. “We want to participate and contribute, and we do know that Mallard Creek alone will not solve all the problems.” But this company continues to do its part to be the change it hopes to see in the world, one chemistry at a time.
