Long Island company specializes in colors

NEW YORK (FOX5NY) - Ewerton Borges has proven that dreams do come true.

He has a passion for plastics. The Brazilian immigrant worked his way up the ladder in a more than $80 billion industry. He went from cleaning floors to buying his own manufacturing business in about 20 years. 

“He showed up at my door one day looking to purchase a machine we were thinking of selling. We got to talking and we ended up negotiating the business,” said Alicia Kolis, director of operations of Spectra Polymers & Colors. Kolis sold the business to Ewerton three months ago.

“From learning the machinery, from operating them, every single week there was a challenge, there was an opportunity, a way to make myself better,” said Borges.
 
Plastic pellets derived from petroleum comes white or clear. An extensive color library with over 35,000 shades helps perfectly match a customer's color request. 

Once the color formulation is made, it’s mixed with plastic and goes through an extruder. It comes out like spaghetti before getting recut into pellets.

“We cool it, dry it, cut it and bring it to a color form where our molders can utilize it to make their parts and products,” said Borges. 

Color concentrated pellets get shipped to molding houses across the country and overseas to become parts and accessories. Spectra Colors produces about 50,000 pounds of colored plastic  a month 

“So if you go into a CVS and look at our Essie displays you can see our white. If you’re in a Victoria's Secret and see the perfume bottles and you can see the caps,” said Kolis. “We’ve supplied Chanel Black for certain displays and worked with Coca Cola for Coca Cola Red.”

Spectra has also created colors that end up on the shelves at Bath and Body Works and even on lipstick end-caps for companies like Revlon. 

They’re expanding their line to children’s toys including Play-Doh and Crayola.  

The company that currently has 8 employees is on track to hit $1.5 million in revenue this year, but Ewerton has big plans for the future.  

“You can call me a dreamer but I think we can do $180 million in the next five to seven years,”  he says.