SPRINGDALE — Joe Brooks compared Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies’s 25-year history to riding a roller coaster.
“We’ve had our ups and downs, but now we are moving forward,” the company’s chief executive officer told a couple dozen shareholders Wednesday during the annual shareholders meeting.
The Springdale-based business is a plastic recycler and manufacturer of green building products. The company combines recycled plastic and waste wood fiber to make window and door components, decking and fence materials at plants in Springdale and Lowell. The company also has a plastics recycling plant outside Watts, Okla.
By The Numbers
AERT Financials
All dollar amounts are in millions.
2009 2010 2011 2012
Net Sales 71.1 69.8 59.3 74.6
Operating income/(loss) (1.2) (1) (7) 2.3
Net loss (5) (5.9) (8) (2)
Source: AERT
Company ups include holding 22 patents, winning numerous honors over the years and creating a revenue line with the Watts plant. The Watts plant opened in 2010.
Some dips include voluntarily moving from the NASDAQ Capital Market to the OTC Bulletin Board in late 2009 as it faced delisting and a 2009 class-action lawsuit over customer complaints about mold and mildew issues on ChoiceDek outdoor decking.
A investment of about $33 million from HIG Capital, a private investment firm, in 2011 helped the company survive the economic slowdown. AERT gave HIG Capital 80 percent of company ownership in exchange for the investment.
Brooks said an improving housing market paves the way for increased sales.
Wayne Wainright of the Beaver Lake area has owned company stock for the past 20 years and attended his first shareholder meeting Wednesday.
He said he watches the stock closely and was happy to hear the Brooks say production is running at capacity.
“That tells me a lot. It means they aren’t just building up inventory but are also filling orders,” he said.
The company is known for its ChoiceDek and MoistureShield product lines. ChoiceDek is sold exclusively by Lowe’s Home Improvement stores and MoistureShield is a wholesale line.
Tim Morrison, company president, said they'll introduce a product later this year that has a special coating making it more durable and scratch resistant. The composite material has a wood look and is fade-resistant, he said.
“This is the first step in a whole series of new products,” Morrison said.
Products are also being developed out of the Watts plant including caulk tubes for Red Devil and dog and pet feeders by Olivet.
The company’s first products were door rails and subsills. The company raised $5.4 million when it went public in 1989 so it could commercialize its process of combining scrap, low-end polyethylene plastics with wood fibers.
Polyethylene plastic is very durable and inexpensive. A common use is plastic shopping bags.
Walmart is a source of a lot of plastic the company recycles. The company has purchased recyclables from the retailer for 10 years. Walmart recently presented AERT with an Excellence in Sustainability award.
The bridge at the entrance of Pinnacle Country Club, site of this week’s LPGA Walmart Northwest Arkansas Championship, is made of a composite material that used 250,000 plastic grocery bags.
“AERT loves grocery bags,” Brooks said. The company processes 75 million pounds of recycled polyethylene each year.
AERT (OTC BB: AERT) shares closed at 20 cents Wednesday, unchanged from Tuesday. Stocks traded between 4 cents and 25 cents during the past 52 weeks.