Szklarek gets promotion to president of Producers Chemical Company

SUGAR GROVE – Producers Chemical Company of Sugar Grove, located at 1960 Bucktail Lane, officially has a new president as of Nov. 1. Jeff Szklarek was promoted to president after working at Producers Chemical Company since July 2008. Szklarek started at Producers Chemical Company as the chief financial officer, and most recently he held the position of chief operating officer.

Szklarek is an inactive certified public accountant with a background in corporate accounting. He worked as a senior financial analyst at Cardinal Health and was a senior accountant at Zimmer Corporation before working at Producers Chemical Company.

“I’m honored and humbled,” Szklarek said of becoming president. “I work with a great group of people. My wife, Abigail, is very excited. She is the daughter of the current owner, Roger Harris. I think a lot of people want to make their own mark on things immediately when they get promoted. It takes a lot of humility to realize when you have a good thing going. I really enjoy my job, and I’m excited to implement a vision for a business that has a strong family background.”

CEO and owner Roger Harris bought the business from his father-in-law, Charles Whinfrey, with his brother-in-law, Pete Whinfrey, in 1987. Harris has solely owned Producers Chemical for the past 12 years.

Producers Chemical Company opened in 1963 and moved from Batavia to Sugar Grove in 2011, Harris said.

“Producers Chemical is an industrial chemical distribution facility,” he said. “We provide a variety of solvents that go into paints and coatings, inks and the printing industry. We sell acids and liquid caustic among other items that are used for water purification and wastewater treatment. We take a large amount of chemicals and package them in smaller amounts.”

Szklarek would like to help the company keep growing and operate more efficiently.

“We are expanding geographically,” Szklarek said. “We have a capital commitment with a $1.7 million tank farm [with 10 stainless steel tanks that hold 15,000 gallons each] in Sugar Grove that we made last year. They give us an additional 150,000 gallons of storage and allowed us to address a bottleneck in our filling and repackaging progress by speeding our process for off-loading deliveries and adding two scales for simultaneous repackaging and blending.”

The business employs 30 people in a variety of roles, including sales, customer service, operations, administration and truck drivers.

“Business has been very strong,” Harris said. “We have a broad base of customers and higher, purer products.”

November has been a big month for Szklarek. He also became a member of the Valley Industrial Association and the National Association of Chemical Distributors.

Information on Producers Chemical Company can be found at www.producerschemical.com.