Stockmeier Urethane continues to expand and support local area

The Clarksburg location began production of polyurethane in 2005. Since that time, they have seen major growth, adding to their building, including a second floor, docks to the sides and more, said Chris Martinkat, president and chief executive officer of the USA branch.

“So, the original part was a lot smaller, but it pretty quickly got expanded in 2009 and 2011,” Martinkat said.

They purchased another property in 2013 that became their main office.

For Stockmeier Urethanes USA, they’re working hard on future projects to further develop the site.

“We’re working on a new warehouse here, and we have talked to several parties involved in the process about utilizing the rail in the back, because we’ll probably have no opportunity to go farther if we simply rely on trucking,” Martinkat said. “We do need to start somehow bringing the rail service onto our side for supplies.”

Their potential to expand is helped by the fact that polyurethane materials have historically grown at a factor of 1.5 to 2 percent of the global trade, Martinkat said. That’s about double the time of the average economy.

“The reason being is that there’s still a lot of materials that are being developed and new technology that are involving new materials,” Martinkat said. “Polyurethane is a very versatile material, so it’s being used in a lot of newer technology.”

Polyurethane is used in a large variety of products and is something many people interact with every day without knowing.

“It comes in as liquid and leaves as liquid, we don’t make any product here,” Martinkat said. “We make materials for companies, which make all kinds of finished products with that.”

These finished products include anything from shoe inserts to running tracks to the dashboard of a car.

“If you go home to your house, your bed, if it has a Tempur-Pedic mattress, it has polyurethane. It’s practically everywhere,” Martinkat said. “That’s a lot of things where polyurethane is all around you, every day.”

The company first began looking to an American site in the early 2000s. Martinkat said they knew they wanted to be in the Mid-Atlantic region, but exactly where they were going to put it had been up for debate.

“In retrospect, I would still argue that what we felt is that we got the best support from the West Virginia Development Authority at the time,” Martinkat said.

He believes based on Stockmeier Urethane’s success, West Virginia should look at investing in more small companies, rather than working on just major projects. Martinkat believes that doing this would help West Virginia create more jobs in the long run.

“Focusing not just on one big company that creates a thousand jobs but focusing on 10 companies that each create 100 jobs. That’s always been my model, and I think they did a good job back then, and they do a good job here,” Martinkat said. “So if Thrasher says they want to revive it, I’m all for it. We’re a living example that this model makes sense and it does work. That’s why we’re here.”

Martinkat said that with the government’s initial help, they were able to grow, which also meant adding more jobs.

“Back then (in 2004), we were five people. We started from nothing,” Martinkat said. “Now we’re at 53 headcount and growing. It’s been a good, long journey. It’s exciting, and we still have the potential to keep on growing.”

With 53 employees, Martinkat estimates over 100 people are actually supported by the company. In this way, Stockmeier Urethane is able to give back to the community.

“We’ve seen a lot of long-term employees from the early days to now starting families buying homes, making a living,” Martinkat said. “It does make an impact to the local area, (as) they might not have had (those opportunities) before.”

Melissa Martinkat has been with the company since 2004. As chief of staff of Stockmeier Urethane, she believes that having more diverse companies will help West Virginia continue to grow.

“The state is really dependent on coal and they need to diversify. If something happens where coal goes away, you need to have something else in its place,” Melissa said. “I think, it’s not like we have that many jobs here, but if we have more companies like us here, that can help. You want to have stable jobs. You want people to stay here.”

Ron Watson is the Harrison County Commission president. He said that he believes Stockmeier Urethane “has certainly shown and demonstrated a solid business plan, and they continue to operate and make improvements in the area.”

One big thing for Watson is their hiring of local people as employees.

“From an economic impact, by providing jobs, which that company has done, it makes opportunities for individuals to work in their industry and have a good a career,” Watson said. “The locals are right here.”

Watson looks forward to seeing what kind of impact that Stockmeier Urethane will continue to make on the community in the future.

“They were able to take a skeleton and have developed it into a big business,” Watson said. “With their idea of continuing to expand, it says they’re here in our community for a long time, and we appreciate that.”