locations.
The Houston headquarters office has 15
employees.
The typical EPT customer, Phillips said, is a
Fortune 500-level company that’s looking to
move a non-hazardous chemicals and is
seeking a partner that can provide logistics,
emergency response and insurance coverage
toward that end. Among the items most
frequently packaged and shipped range from
base oils, edible oils and chemicals, all the
way down towine and juice.
And because there’s rarely a shortage of
companies looking to get thingsmoved from
one place to another – regardless of overall
economic conditions – Sims foresees a
prolonged stretchof activity.
“This has been and will continue to be a
rapidly expanding business worldwide,” he
said.
“Whenwe got in to this, there were probably
three manufacturers in China, maybe five.
There are probably 45 now. It’s a huge
growth industry.”
EPT’s business is commodity and price
driven, Phillips said, so it’s largely based on
where prospective buyers can buy and
transport the cheapest product pound per
gallon. For example, if the glycerin market is
hot in the U.S., the company will be export
more product in flexitanks out of the U.S. If
the market heats up in Argentina in two
months, then all that product will be
exported fromArgentina in flexitanks.
The industry is largely split into two
EPT | BusinessWorld-
Magazine | 3
