INTERVIEW-"Green" plastic bags maker SPhere sees rosy future

* Sees 2008 sales of 400 million euros vs 320 mln in 2007

* Sees annual sales growth above 20 pct in medium term

* Says market listing one option to fund development

By Marie Maitre

PARIS, April 30 (Reuters) - Tougher environmental regulation will boost sales at SPhere, a French maker of biodegradable plastic bags, by around 20 percent annually until 2011 and by more beyond then, the chairman of the family-owned mid-cap said.

SPhere, which makes carrier bags and bin liners with a resin made out of potato starch, believes bioplastic bags will go from niche market to industrial product in the next five years, John Persenda, who founded the company in 1976, told Reuters.

"Everything will change with the legislation the authorities have promised for very soon," Persenda, a former Franco-British engineer, said in an interview at SPhere's headquarters.

"We have revenue growth of around 20 percent a year but this could be much faster if, all of a sudden, the law says that carrier bags have to be biodegradable."