ZUCKER SEES BETTER DAYS FOR COMPANY; CEO optimistic fabrics maker Polymer Group will come back from losses, sluggish market.

Byline: JIM PARKER Of The Post and Courier Staff

Jerry Zucker's financial touch has wooed investors and created a conglomerate from the frozen ice of hockey venues to the cold, hard cash of bank vaults. His InterTech Group of companies, which manufactures synthetics used in products from fishing tackle to batteries, landed at 36th on Forbes magazine's list of the largest privately held U.S. companies last year. Zucker is an investor in Passport International shirtmaker in Mount Pleasant, which sells through catalogs nationwide. He took Versent Corp., a Canadian owner of "laser tag" entertainment centers, private in the past year. Zucker, 52, is part owner of the S.C. Carolina Stingrays hockey team, built the Carolina Ice Palace rink in North Charleston, and recently bought two hockey entertainment centers in Canada. He is a partner with Jerry Shearer in MidAtlantic Investors, which has made a small fortune buying into thrifts and community banks that later are acquired at premiums by regional and national banks. Meanwhile, Zucker and his wife, Anita, have made charitable contributions in the millions of dollars that benefit thousands of people locally. But Zucker's biggest challenge to date may be the most visible of his endeavors - publicly traded Polymer Group Inc., of which he is CEO. The North Charleston fabrics maker for household names such as Pampers diapers, Handi Wipes and Swiffer dust mops has racked up a year's worth of losses totaling $39.4 million. The past year has left investors, analysts and others puzzled. Can Polymer Group fashion a comeback with new technology and prices and demand returning to more normal patterns, or is the company fraying at the edges and in for more …