City to spur growth of young, Wausau-born company

WAUSAU — Cory Thorson's business first outgrew his parents' basement, then his own basement, and now his 3,000-square-foot site on South 86th Avenue can't contain all the resins, rolls of colorful carbon fabrics and other materials necessary for Composite Envisions.

The high-tech company, which manufactures sheets of a hard, lightweight carbon fiber composite used for everything from drones and airplane parts to display boards and phone cases, has found the extra space it needs to expand in Wausau with $100,000 in city assistance.

"We really need to move," Thorson said in his small warehouse, equipped with a heated table for production and the company's "mascot" — a 3-year-old German shorthaired pointer named Ryder who belongs to Thorson's general manager and longtime friend, Jacob Maahs.

The company produces some composite products, but it's also a distributor, selling the raw materials needed to make other products. Thorson wants to upgrade from the heated table to a press that can produce more than 10 times the volume he now can produce.

"That's going to blow the doors off everything," Thorson said about increased production.

In late November, the Wausau Economic Development Committee granted a $100,000 forgivable loan to Composite Envisions. Each year the company stays in town, $10,000 will be forgiven from the loan, so the company gets cash to expand and the city gets a high-tech employer committed to central Wisconsin.

"It's a $100,000 gift with a little insurance for us," said City Council member Tom Neal. The development agreement also will allow the company to buy four acres from the city on Development Court in the industrial park for $1. Thorson plans to use a bank loan for building and other expenses.

"We really want you to stay, guys," City Council member Bill Nagle told Thorson and Maahs when his committee approved funding for Composite Envisions.

The company buys and resells a lot of specialty fabrics made of carbon fiber and Kevlar in various colors and weaves for strength and aesthetics. Hobbyists and professionals use it to make a very strong, very light material for everything from souped-up pinewood derby cars to drones, specialty cars and parts on a space station. Thorson counts those users among his clients who span the globe. Recent shipments, for example, left Wausau bound for Dubai and Chile.

The company has evolved now to be part designer, part retailer and part manufacturer, he said, because employees work with weavers to customize different carbon fiber fabrics, they sell raw materials for carbon composites and they create some in house. "The materials are very high tech that we work with ... there's a lot of engineering that goes into it."

Composite Envisions manufactures flat composite panels from those fabrics in house by heating and compressing them with resin.

"There's so many things you can do with flat shapes," Maahs said, showing a composite-made bottle opener.

The company employees three people and will add two part-time and four more full-time employees with the expansion — two making between $15,000 and $30,000, one to make over $45,000 and another over $60,000. The current employees, including Thorson, learned on the job from customers, suppliers and from trial and error. In the future, he might need some employees with prior experience in IT and with composite engineering, he said.

Thorson began working with carbon fibers while he attended Wausau West High School, when it fell to him almost by accident. He set up a successful shop on eBay selling network adapters for gamers and earned enough money to buy a BMW. When the person he hired to make custom paneling on his car didn't complete the project, Thorson decided to do it himself and bought a roll of carbon fiber.

He took the leftovers to the Internet and sold them easily. Customers asked him for more and different items and Composite Envisions grew into that niche. The company has never done any marketing.

"Our customer base really built what the business is," Maahs said. He and Thorson have been friends since they attended John Muir Middle School together, and Maahs often jumps in to expand on Thorson's quieter explanations. Both are 28.

Thorson said he hopes to break ground on the new facility in the spring. The new facility will begin at 7,500 square feet, built to allow three more additions of the same square footage as the company grows.

"This is getting really legit," Thorson said. "I've got a lot more responsibilities."

He doesn't see the composite industry going away, but said it's likely to evolve. Maahs said in the future, they might look at opening a second site outside Wausau.

Nora G. Hertel can be reached at 715-845-0665. Find her on Twitter as @nghertel.