Balls Bounce Executive’s Way

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Sydney Chase was a vice president for a North Hollywood manufacturing company named Armorcast Products Co. that made an unusual product: plastic shade balls.

The Los An-geles Department of Water and Power used them to cover reservoirs, but the company decided to drop the business so it could focus on its main contracts, such as making plastic barriers for freeway construction.

That’s when Chase saw an opportunity. So last year she quit her job and started her own shade ball company XavierC, headquartered in Glendora. The decision recently paid off when her company snagged its first contract with the DWP. It will supply 6.4 million plastic shade balls for L.A.’s reservoirs over the next year at about 30 cents each. The contract is for up to $2.4 million, including other costs.

The black plastic balls float on the water’s surface to prevent evaporation, block sun-triggered chemical reactions and reduce algae formation. The 4-inch shade balls are hollow but hold some water to prevent them from flying away in the wind.

Chase said the balls are important for water conservation but added that they have aesthetic value, too.

“They look like little black pearls – basically a plate of caviar,” she said.

Chase brings more than 30 years of manufacturing experience to the company and invested $500,000 of her money in the venture.

“I sold my property and wagered life and land to get it going,” she said.

Now, the company has a staff of 60 with a 90,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Colton.

XavierC also supplies its product to Mt. Baldy Ski Lifts Inc. in the San Gabriel Mountains to cover a reservoir that’s used for sn-ow-making in winter and firefighting in summer.

Chase said it will take up to seven months to manufacture the shade balls for the DWP. She guarantees the product for 10 years.

The market for plastic shade balls is still an emerging one, but the company has received interest from other industries that have reservoirs that need covering.

“We’re getting interest from mining, agricultural and petroleum companies,” she said.

– Subrina Hudson

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