From Troy Shantz, Sarnia Journal
About half of the fifth floor of the St.
Clair Corporate Centre in downtown Sarnia has been leased to a software company
with plans of further expansion.
U.S-based Clear Care Inc. arrived in Sarnia
last year when it purchased HomeTrak, a homegrown software company and
competitor located on Exmouth Street.
The combined company has grown from 20 local
employees to nearly 50 and moved into the 9,600-square-feet of office space
this spring.
“We are a lot more economical for hiring than
in California,” said Moyra Miller, VP of customer success.
“Clear Care approved this much space with
expansion in mind.”
The company, based in San Francisco, makes
software used by 4,000 private duty home-care agencies providing housekeeping,
maintenance and other services to independent-living seniors.
Image. Troy Shantz
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Benefuel,
a company with offices in Ottawa and Texas, is working to build biodiesel
refinery in Sarnia expected to begin operating in 2020 with more than 40
workers.
Sarnia-based Bioindustrial Innovation Canada,
a government-funded agency working to help new sustainable technologies reach
the market, said Tuesday it has invested in Benefuel to allow it to complete
engineering needed as a final step before building a plant in Sarnia.
“We recognize the need for low carbon
transportation fuels and Benefuel provides an important step forward to meet
these goals,” Sandy Marshall, executive director of Bioindustrial Innovation
Canada, said in a news release.
Rob Tripp, chief executive officer of
Benefuel, said the company is planning to build a plant in Sarnia with an
annual capacity of 75-million litres.
“We’re looking at leaving room to double the
capacity down the road,” he added.
Tripp said the company is still working
through estimates for the cost of the Sarnia plant. He added, “We typically
don’t disclose financial information.”
Benefuel uses a unique refining technology to
make biodiesel, Tripp said.
“It is capable of processing all of the
hard-to-process waste oils that are high in free fatty acids,” he said.
The target feedstock for the Sarnia plant
will be used cooking oil and distiller’s corn oil, which is a by-product of
ethanol refining.
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BioAmber, a Montreal-based company with a
manufacturing site in Sarnia, reported a record quarter at the end of 2017 with
revenue of $5.4 million.
Revenue in 2017 totalled $14.9 million
compared to $8.3 million in 2016, an 81-per-cent increase, driven by increased
sales of bio-succinic acid from the Sarnia plant opened in 2015, the company
said this week.
BioAmber uses corn syrup to make succinic
acid, a building block chemical used in products ranging from paints and
plastics to cosmetics and food additives at its first large-scale commercial
production site next to Vidal Street in Sarnia.
“We are pleased with the solid growth, which
is reflective of our growing customer base and the potential of bio-succinic
acid as an important chemical building block,” CEO Rick Eno said Wednesday
during a quarterly earnings conference call.
“The entire company is working to move our
operations to be gross margin positive at the plant level, followed by
profitability at the corporate level,” Eno said.
“We believe this performance will unlock
growth opportunities for us, including a second plant that will convert
bio-succinic acid into butanediol and THF (tetrahydrofuran), which reflect an
$8-billion market.”
The company said in late 2017 it was focusing
on Sarnia as the potential site for a second plan.
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