High temps under the hood drive performance
ASCEND Performance Materials, a Houston company that makes fibers, plastics and chemicals used in thousands of products from car parts to clothing, had another solid year, ranking fourth on the Chronicle 100 list of the region’s top private performing companies.
Demand for Ascends products, which are designed to withstand high temperatures, is especially strong from the automotive industry, which buys Ascend electrical connectors for electric and hybrid cars with lithium batteries, fiber for tires and fabric for air bags. Ascend’s chemical compounds are also used to make oven cooking bags, the fuzz on tennis balls and heavy-duty plastic straps.
Ascend also is finding different ways to use its advanced materials , filing at least one patent application each month. One of the latest projects is creating fabric without static cling.
The products developed from plastic pellets and spools of nylon yarn can trace their beginnings to the mid-1980s, a time when the carpeting industry was revolutionized by chemical companies inventing special stain-blocking compounds. But when carpeting fell out of favor, several chemical makers spun off their special stain-resistance businesses to companies like Ascend, which are now using the same basic building blocks to make drapes that repel dirt, stronger and more flexible airbags and parts for radiators and manifolds.
“They saw it as a dying business,” said chief financial officer Kevin Bartol. "We’ve been able to take a mature and some say a declining industry and turn it into a high technology growth business."
SK Capital Partners, a New York investment firm, owns Ascend. The company was founded and launched in Houston after SK Capital bought Solutia, a St. Louis maker of nylon chemicals, plastics and fibers.
Ascend reported revenue of $2.1 billion in 2017, compared to $2 billion the previous year. Ascend has 2,500 employees, including 750 in the Houston area, and five manufacturing sites, including one in Alvin, two in Alabama, and one each in Florida and South Carolina
Ascend says it is the nation’s 56th largest exporter, selling about 60 percent of its products overseas, especially to Europe and Asia.
The company has sales offices in Brussels and Shanghai.