Marc Verbruggen
CEO | NatureWorks LLC | Minnetonka, Minn.
NatureWorks LLC is like the Tesla Motors of plastics.
Led by Marc Verbruggen, the company is one of the largest in the U.S. making plastics from plants, rather than oil and natural gas.
NatureWorks has improved manufacturing and can now compete with traditional, petrochemical plastics and with $30-a-barrel oil, Verbruggen said.
“Through good times and bad times, through high oil and low oil, over the last two years, on that (decrease) from $100 a barrel oil to $30 a barrel, NatureWorks has been EBITDA positive for that whole period, month after month after month,” he said. “Believe me, I would not have been able to say that in 2006.”
It’s been a tough road, he told a conference in April: The decision to build a commercial plant in 2002, without much of a market, “got three CEOs fired.”
The long view is key, Verbruggen said, because PLA is a young material. Petrochemical plastics have been around for 50-plus years, and some took decades to get significant commercial positions.
“We’re like a 15-year-old who hopefully will get to 70, 80, 90, 100 years old,” he said. “For us, that’s a cause of great optimism.”
— STEVE TOLOKEN
