Vinyl siding newcomer Fibreboard Corp. plans to expand by acquiring Canadian producer Vytec Corp., a US$50 million operation based in London, Ontario. The Walnut Creek, Calif., firm claimed in a Sept. 12 announcement that the deal will make it one of the top five vinyl siding producers in North America.
Fibreboard reached an agreement to buy Vytec about a year after the California firm entered vinyl siding production by acquiring Norandex Inc. of Macedonia, Ohio. Vinyl siding accounted for about 40 percent of Norandex's 1993 sales of $200 million. Fibreboard, which agreed to pay $35 million to $40 million in cash for the privately held Vytec, expects to complete the deal by Oct. 31.
Fibreboard's siding production capacity will vault to more than 300 million square feet per year, spokesman Stephen DeMaria said in a telephone interview. Its current annual capacity is about 165 million square feet, all at the Claremont, N.C., plant run by its Norandex unit.
Vytec Canadian sales manager Paul Spriet said Vytec has been making about 120 million square feet of siding annually. Its main plant is in London, but it also extrudes siding in Vancouver, British Columbia, from which it exports to Pacific Rim countries, a new Fibreboard market.
Vytec employs about 250. Vytec's operations expand Fibreboard's geographic base and complement its Norandex subsidiary, which will broaden its offerings at Norandex sales outlets with new-construction and renovation siding products. Fibreboard has 96 building products distribution centers across the United States.
Fibreboard officials stressed that Vytec will continue to operate as a separate subsidiary and continue to supply its es-tablished independent dealer network. Current Vytec management will stay with the operation.
Spriet said Vytec expects to gain sales volume through the deal, and Fibreboard's financial strength should help Vytec grow in a market where the major players are becoming bigger through acquisitions. No specific capacity expansion plans for Vytec are in the works, DeMaria said.
The Spriet family had a business distributing vinyl siding and other building products when it formed a joint venture with Mastic Inc. in 1973 to make siding in London. The family bought out Mastic in 1983 and renamed its wholly owned business Vytec in 1986, Spriet said.
Vytec bought the Vancouver operation in 1988 from Flex-Lox Ltd., which several years later sold its PVC pipe operation to Royal Plastics Group. Vytec was chosen last year as one of Canada's top 50 best-managed private companies by The Fi business newspaper.
Fibreboard's other businesses include wood products, industrial insulation, timberland ownership and two resorts in California.
