CHICAGO — The former plastics extrusion business of publicly held Alumax Inc. has a new name and new, private owners.
Now part of Amerimax Specialty Products Inc., the profile and tubing extrusion unit was spun off Sept. 25 with the rest of Alumax's Specialty Products division, said Amerimax sales manager Randy Greves. Amerimax Specialty Products is now a division of the spinoff, which is called Euromax Ltd. plc and is based in Norcross, Ga., he said.
Alumax, also based in Norcross, sold its Specialty Products division to a management group backed by a venture capital firm with operations in Europe.
Plastic profiles and tubing make up about $2 million of the division's sales, with the brunt of its business coming from roll-formed metal products.
Alumax first acquired the plastics extrusion unit in 1991 from Creative Extrusions, in response to a perceived ``erosion back in the late '80s and early '90s from metal into plastics,'' Greves said. In April 1996, Alumax moved the unit from Vandalia, Ohio, and consolidated it with Specialty Products' metal operations in Carrollton, Ky.
Plastic extrusion production uses about 20,000 square feet of the 144,000-square-foot facility. Key end markets include the refrigeration industry, such as framing for refrigerator doors in recreational vehicles; automotive tubing; and decorative trim for caskets, Greves said.
Euromax's steel and aluminum products include doors and siding for RVs, residential rain gutters and coil coating.
Under the Amerimax name, Mike Hoffman still heads Specialty Products as general manager. Alumax Appliance & Specialty Products Inc. had ranked 174th in Plastics News' 1996 survey of North American pipe, profile and tubing extruders, with relevant sales of $2 million and three extrusion lines.