http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20160728/newport-biodiesel-expanding-operation-with-loans
Newport Biodiesel expanding operation with loans
By Kate Bramson
Journal Staff Writer
Posted Jul. 28, 2016 at 5:32 PM
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Newport company that collects used cooking oil
from more than 3,000 New England restaurants and converts it to
clean-burning biodiesel expects a $400,000 loan that was approved
Thursday will help it expand and hire more employees.
The Small Business Loan Fund Corporation approved the loan to
Newport Biodiesel at its regular monthly meeting. The company expects
the money to help it hire new employees, increasing staff from 27 to 35
people, Loan Fund board member Lee W. Mercer said.
The company is also getting a $400,000 loan from Webster Bank, said
Robert Morton, a company founder who is now chairman of the firm's board.
Both loans will go toward the company's planned $1-million purchase
of new, more efficient equipment for its facility at 312 J.T. Connell
Highway in Newport, Morton said in an interview after the board meeting,
which he did not attend.
When the company started in 2007, it produced 150,000 gallons of
biodiesel, which can be used in vehicles that run on diesel fuel and in
boilers that operate on oil, Morton said. The private company doesn't
disclose revenue, but Morton said it now produces 4.5 million gallons of
biodiesel a year. With this planned expansion, he said, the company
hopes to produce about 7 million gallons a year within a couple of year.
Established in 1986 with federal funds, the Small Business Loan
Fund Corporation is a public subsidiary corporation of the Rhode Island
Commerce Corporation. As companies such as Newport Biodiesel pay back
their loans, the principal and interest is used for subsequent loans.
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