Stockton is home for high-tech plastics firm

By Joe Goldeen

Record Staff Writer

February 10, 2013 12:00 AM

STOCKTON - There's a well-worn scene in the iconic 1967 film "The Graduate" when Mr. McGuire, played by Walter Brooke, pulls Ben (Dustin Hoffman) aside to offer him some advice about his future:

"I just want to say one word to you, just one word. Are you listening? ... Plastics."

Advanced Polymer Technologies

Founded: 2002 in Stockton

Employees: 27

Products: Custom-designed and manufactured polymer materials and shapes for the semiconductor industry as well as numerous other industries

Address: 3837 Imperial Way, Stockton

Phone: (800) 590-7527 or (209) 464-2701

Website: aptllc.net

 Hoffman stuck with acting and did pretty well. Stockton businessman Steve Kessler, on the other hand, who prides himself on staying under the radar, has done pretty well, too - in plastics.

To be precise, Kessler has made his name in polymers, a broader class of chemical compounds with infinite possibilities for end users from aircraft and agriculture to food processing, hydraulic fracturing (better known as "fracking" for oil and natural gas), medical parts, semiconductors and beyond.

In 2002, Kessler, who has a varied background in business, chemistry and physics, started Advanced Polymer Technologies in a nondescript, poorly ventilated building in Stockton with little more than the vision of the company he wanted to build.

Today, the multimillion-dollar enterprise - he won't disclose financials - provides one-of-a-kind polymer solutions to critical manufacturing problems for companies in 15 countries. About 35 percent of APT's business is derived from providing polymers to the semiconductor industry.

Kessler includes among his clients Lam Research Corp. of Fremont, Applied Materials of Santa Clara and CertainTeed, an international manufacturer and distributor of sustainable building materials with a pipe and plastics facility in Lodi.

"Stockton was a good area to locate for cost, and it's in the middle of everything for us and our customer base," Kessler said.

Meeting unique customer needs has been a key to APT's survival and growth through the recession. Kessler also gives a lot of the credit to his 27 employees, especially his senior team, including general manager John Sharpe and production manager Jayson Cooley.

APT can provide an end product that is custom-designed to his customer's demanding needs, both in its shape and the chemical properties needed for the long haul.

"It's very difficult to do. You need to have a very strong engineering background. Everything we do is custom-built by us. You can't buy the equipment to do what we do," Kessler said.

Meanwhile, Kessler said, large chemical companies have preferred to partner with APT to develop new materials.

While there is no one word that describes what APT does, Kessler summed it up this way: "We take polymer science and apply it to an extrusion process." He also likes to say, "We make visions come true," with the caveat that it has to be a material that is extrudable.

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