Rollprint Packaging Products Inc. now draws 70 percent of its sales from the medical industry, following its purchase of the assets of UCB Medical Industries Inc. in Bloomfield, Conn. Rollprint, an Addison, Ill., converter, announced the deal Aug. 3. Terms were not disclosed.
The firm bought the 45,000-square-foot Bloomfield plant from UCB SA of Brussels, Belgium, which had purchased the facility in 1988 from Medical Industries Inc.
The original owner of Medical Industries, Paul Michaelson, continued to work in management at the Bloomfield plant for UCB prior to the latest sale. He could not be reached for comment.
UCB employees in Belgium declined to provide information about whether UCB would have a continuing presence in flexible packaging in the United States.
In an unrelated move, UCB, a major chemical, pharmaceutical and flexible packaging producer in Europe, consolidated its U.S. pharmaceutical operations in Atlanta by moving employees from Richmond, Va. Luke Vermeeseh, a UCB spokesman in Atlanta, said there was no connection to this move and the company's sale of assets in Bloomfield.
Along with the Connecticut plant, Rollprint also acquired exclusive rights from UCB to market a line of coextruded peelable films for medical applications in the United States.
The Bloomfield plant produces plain and printed films and laminated, peelable rollstock, including its patented transparent, glass-coated, high barrier polyester laminate. Rollprint has produced flexible packaging since 1946.
The acquisition of assets adds between 20 and 30 employees to Rollprint's 162 workers. Rollprint has two buildings in Addison, with total floor space of about 196,000 square feet.
Company officials estimate the combined sales of Bloomfield and Addison operations at $30 million.
Richard B. Wood, Rollprint Packaging's marketing vice president, said the privately owned Rollprint acquired the UCB assets as an ``extension of Rollprint's business in the medical market'' in which it has been involved since the mid-1960s.
``The Bloomfield operation and the [coextruded] films represent an expansion of our existing business and Rollprint's commitment to the health-care industry,'' said President Robert K. Dodrill. ``We believe that the additional plant and peelable coextruded film technology will provide Rollprint greater flexibility and versatility in handling the challenges facing the flexible packaging market.''