Trying to solidify its business, tire recycler GreenMan Technologies Inc. has hired an investment bank to help it secure new capital.
Meanwhile, the state of Iowa has granted GreenMan a $196,000 low-interest loan to fund new scrap tire processing equipment at its Des Moines, Iowa, plant.
Pembroke, Mass.-based Array Financial Services Inc. is now GreenMan's exclusive financial adviser, according to GreenMan. The firm describes Array as an investment bank ``specializing in the corporate finance needs of dynamic, middle-market companies.''
Lynnhaven-based GreenMan-previously one of the most expansion-minded of all tire recycling companies, with operations in a number of states-has had trouble obtaining capital since its primary lender, Coast Business Credit, collapsed last year.
Since hiring Array, GreenMan has had ``double-digit meetings'' with potential lenders, according to GreenMan CFO Chuck Coppa. ``We think they've done a wonderful job in getting us meetings with people whom we'd never talked to before,'' Mr. Coppa said.
As for the Iowa loan, the state officially has approved it, and ``we're just finishing the paperwork,'' Mr. Coppa said. He added that the company expects to have the money in hand by the end of May.
Lack of funds has stymied a number of GreenMan's most important projects, such as creation of a full-fledged crumb rubber processing operation at its LaVergne, Tenn., facility and re-establishment of waste wire processing operations at its Jackson, Ga., plant. The latter operations have been closed since a March 31, 2003, fire at the facility.
Mr. Coppa said the company has made ``very good strides'' in Jackson and now hopes to reopen operations there during June. As for the Tennessee plant, Mr. Coppa said the company's current fundraising efforts are slanted mainly toward financing new tire shredding equipment there.
``Our ultimate plan is to have the Tennessee plant be a `soup-to-nuts' facility, much like our Iowa plant, with tire shredders, rubber granulators and raspers for waste wire processing,'' he said.