People: Mining a rich seam

Paul Mines, boss of Stanelco, brings some useful big-company dealmaking experience to the task of turning this loss-making former radio frequency technology concern into what he and investors hope will become a profitable niche player in bioplastics.

He recently launched a £3.5 million open offer to existing and new investors to help Stanelco, which is renaming itself Biome Technology, to reflect its new core business, reach profitability in 2012.

An experienced packaging industry hand, for eight years Mines ran Betts Group Holdings, a leader in printed laminated tubes for the oral and personal care markets, having led its buy-out from the mighty Courtaulds group.

He now feels that a company at Stanelco/Biome’s stage of development will fare better – and pay lower fees – outside the constraints of the full London Stock Exchange listing and wants to take it to AIM, with Singer Capital as nominated adviser.

Stanelco/Biome is now focused on starch-based granules, used by large commercial and industrial concerns to make biodegradable and renewable materials for premium-priced flexible films, solid articles and coatings. Mines, who claims that Stanelco’s versatile granules ‘can make products degrade in a week or last for years’, says sales are strongest in northern Europe, where environmental legislation drives the market, and is hopeful about progress in the USA.

He and his fellow directors are contributing 5 per cent to the funding, whose discounted 0.125p price was needed ‘to make sure we got more than our minimum £2.7 million target’.

They have also taken a 30 per cent cut in remuneration to help the company out of the red.