When Gregory J. Shemanski and Jeffrey A. Klinger founded Custom Processing Services Inc. (CPS) in 1998, they were dedicated to finding the most cutting-edge methods for grinding a wide range of materials into ultra-fine particles for the manufacturing industry.
That same year, they applied to Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/NEP) for seed funding. Ben Franklin introduced CPS to the Greater Berks Development Fund, which helped them obtain federal and state money for equipment and working capital; it also connected CPS with Penn State University for analysis of its machinery.
Starting as a two-person company — with Shemanski handling the sales, purchasing and other administrative tasks, and Klinger running the machines — CPS hired its first employee in 2001, and has grown steadily to become a state-of-the-art facility “at the forefront of the contract manufacturing industry,” according to Laura Eppler, director of marketing for BFTP/NEP.
Located in a large complex in Exeter Township, southeast of Reading, CPS operates not only a plant for grinding general industrial materials, but also a plant containing clean rooms dedicated to processing pharmaceuticals and food products. It also owns a grinding facility with rail service in East Greenville.
Recently, CPS has been especially focused on growing the food- and pharmaceutical-grade processing part of its business.
“We installed a new process in our pharmaceutical area in February,” says Shemanski, the company president. “We really put a lot of effort into it. We have a blending suite on nothing but stainless steel equipment as far as the eye can see. It's in a climate-controlled, person-controlled, every-type-of-controlled area.”
When CPS put in its double-ribbon blenders, customers clamored to have products processed in it. The equipment has been designated cGMP — federal code for “current Good Manufacturing Process”– for handling pharmaceutical products.
To grow this sector, CPS has hired 20 more employees, bringing the company's total to about 120; they expect to hire 20 more by the end of this year.
In April, the company also put high-tech equipment in its traditional grinding plant in East Greenville and added a large system for pelletizing materials in the Exeter Township plant.
“We're not just grinding,” explains Shemanski. “We're doing blending and pelletizing and nano-sizing. We offer more and more services.”
According to Shemanski, the next step will be to grow the wet processing facility, for which they have brought in an expert in the field.
“We can go down to nano-sized particles in extremely abrasive materials, and materials that are extremely reactive, for all kinds of industries, using a wet system with solvents or aqueous solutions,” he says. “There's an infinite number of markets we can go into with the wet processing.”
CPS was one of the first companies to be honored with a Governor's ImPAct Award in 2013; they were honored in the Small Business category. The program recognizes companies and entrepreneurs who have made an impact in their communities by investing in Pennsylvania and creating jobs. CPS also earned BFTP/NEP’s Entrepreneurial Achievement Innovation Award in 2006.
“I believe we're just going to add more and more of the existing types of processing systems,” says Shemanski. “We're not sitting still.”