SoilGuard.com
Title
Soil Erosion - Mat, Inc. - Producers Of Soil Guard
Description
. . . becomes obvious on the lonely drive up U.S. Highway 2 from Duluth: endless waves of aspen, birch and tamarack trees rolling to the horizon. The forests of northeastern Minnesota furnish an ample supply of wood for the company's high-tech fiber mats and mulches, used to prevent erosion and promote regrowth on construction sites, highway cuttings, and golf courses.
A former contract manufacturer for Weyerhaeuser Corp., Mat struck out on its own in 1996, producing a line of re-seeding products that includes Mat-Fiber, a mulch made from aspen wood chips, and Mat-Blend, a mixture of aspen fiber and recycled newsprint. All the firm's products are made from the leavings of area wood-products companies, ground up and refined in a 35,000-square-foot facility four miles west of town.
Revenues jumped 30 percent in 1998. President and founder Joseph Karpik hopes to maintain that growth rate by continuing to aggressively market Soil Guard, a material developed by Weyerhaeuser that is sprayed on the ground to form a water-resistant, plant friendly ground cover. Since acquiring the rights to Soil Guard a year ago Mat has established markets for it throughout the U.S. and in southern Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Rim and Australia -regions where regular mulch tends to be washed or blown away. "It's has been a busy summer and fall, and we feel that (1999) will be even bigger for us." he says.
Languages
English
