Maine Textiles hires former financial services leader as CEO to head expansion
Mark W. Boyer
Maine Textiles International LLC, the owner and operator of the Saco River Dyehouse, has hired a new CEO to lead the company’s expansion into domestic and international markets.
The company announced this week that Mark W. Boyer has taken over as chief executive, leaving co-founder and former CEO Claudia Raessler to serve as in-house counsel and to focus on strategic alliances. Boyer is principal of national consulting group The Joe Group and has previously served as CEO of Atlanta-based Foundation Financial Group.
Boyer told Mainebiz that he met Raessler last fall at Mainebiz’s Momentum Convention in Portland and became interested in Maine Textiles because of its growth potential.
“We’re looking at two things: expanding current operations for contract dye services in the craft market,” he said of Maine Textiles. For its second initiative, the company plans to open a synthetic yarn division in 2016 using technology Boyer said doesn’t currently exist in Maine.
Since Mainebiz profiled Raessler as a Woman to Watch last August, Maine Textiles has already increased its number of employees from 12 to 18, Boyer said. He said he seeks to use his expertise in growing companies to boost the textile company.
Boyer, whose consulting firm helps small and large companies in growth, management and process, wouldn’t name any specific examples of companies he has helped grow. But he did throw out a figure, pointing to his ambitions for Maine Textiles.
“I grew my last company from 8 employees to 500,” he said. “I’m starting this one 10 employees ahead so this has to mean bigger and better things ahead, right?”
Raessler told Mainebiz that she decided to hire Boyer to diversify Maine Textile’s management team as it heads into expansion mode.
“[My expertise] was in doing legal work and strategic alliances,” she said, “so we wanted to hire a CEO with more experience in sales and marketing.”
Maine Textiles is currently in the research and development phase for the company’s synthetic yarn division, which Raessler said is being done to diversify the company’s portfolio of contract dye services that it offers. She said the material is used in climbing ropes and for marine purposes, among many other uses.
“A year ago a big potential customer asked us if we could dye synthetic yarn and, in turn, asked if we had the technology, [but] we did not,” Raessler said. That spurred Maine Textiles to begin assessing whether it could expand into that market, she said.
So far, the company’s pilot tests in conjunction with Biddeford-based Sterling Rope have been successful, Raessler said. “If the project moves forward we’ll be purchasing [specialty dying] equipment and selling [the new synthetic yarn dyeing services],” she added. “There’s not any company that we’re aware of that is doing this in the country.”
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Women to watch: Claudia Raessler, Maine Textiles
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