MOSES LAKE - Western Polymer Corporation is expanding operations to the other side of the country.

The Moses Lake industrial starch manufacturer recently announced the acquisition of Aroostook Starch Company in Fort Fairfield, Maine. Western Polymer also has a starch plant in Grand Forks, N.D.

Western Polymer President and CEO Lynn Townsend-White said the purchase of Aroostook will help diversify the company.

While the Moses Lake plant processes primarily industrial starch, the Maine plant will process food-grade potato starch, she said.

"It will be a different product line," Townsend-White said.

The North Dakota plant, which the company built in 2001, processes many of the same starch products as the Moses Lake facility, she said.

Townsend-White said like the Moses Lake and Grand Forks locations, the Fort Fairfield plant is located close to raw material sources.

"Fort Fairfield is in the northeast corner of Maine, and like the Columbia Basin it's also a potato-growing region," she said.

Areas that yield many potatoes typically have many processing plants nearby, Townsend-White explained.

"We buy our starch from processing plants, that's where the raw material comes from," she said.

Townsend-White said purchasing Aroostook allows Western Polymer to be closer to the processing plants in that region. It also helps the company reduce transportation costs to their customers on the East Coast, she said.

"It was a strategic move for us," Townsend-White said.

The Moses Lake plant currently employs about 45 people. Before the acquisition, Western Polymer had about 60 employees between its Moses Lake and Grand Forks plants.

Townsend-White said Western Polymer gained about eight employees from its acquisition of Aroostook.

For more information about Western Polymer, visit www.westernpolymer.com.