Television spin-offs are tricky things. Characters you loved in the context of your favorite show inhabiting a new life in a new time slot can be confusing and uncomfortable. Frasier was critically acclaimed but never achieved the same cultural relevance and adoration as Cheers. Happy Days were not so happy on Joanie Loves Chachi. Fortunately for the coating chemists at SilcoTek, this isn’t TV, its business. And for this successful spin-off, business is booming.
SilcoTek’s story begins when State College chromatography firm ResTek becomes employee owned on January 1st, 2009. Recognizing the divergent business models and professional goals of the new ResTek and the existing performance coatings division, employee Paul Silvis makes a power play to depart, bringing the coatings team with him. His wish is granted and, cue the theme music, the spin-off has begun. Since departing its parent 19 months ago, SilcoTek has thrived. In response to increased sales in Europe, the company opened a German subsidiary and, with the addition of a new, thicker, more water-resistant coating product, hopes to increase work on offshore oil rigs. Earlier this month, SilcoTek’s accomplishments were recognized with $250,000 from Ben Franklin Technology Partners.
“As part of ResTek, we were one of many product lines but our application in the market was so different that our group naturally started to isolate a little bit,” says SilcoTek Business Manager Gary Barone. “ResTek became 100 percent employee owned and, at the same time, it was ideal to say ‘ok, lets take this line that is becoming its own little island and form a company.”
Those new applications led SilcoTek away from analytical chemistry to target coatings for oil and coal production. Over the past year, the company has worked with customers and, with this latest round of funding, SilcoTek is launching a new product called Dursan. A more rugged, thicker, more water-resistant coating, Dursan holds up against salt water, which helps extend the lifetime of offshore oil rigs and other ocean equipment, and reduces ware for moving parts of machinery. With these new expansions and product offerings, this spin-off looks like it has a long way to go before the credits roll.
“This funding lets you know that our state wants to see technology developed to create jobs within the state,” says Barone. “Being recognized now as an independent, not just as a spin-off, to drive our future, for all of us who came over and made the leap, adds a sense of pride that we are going to make it.”
Source: Gary Barone, SilcoTek
Writer: John Steele
