Tuscarora acquires Arrowtip of London
NEW BRIGHTON, PA. — Tuscarora Inc. has boosted its European presence by acquiring London-based Arrowtip Group, a maker of custom molded and fabricated foam packaging products for automotive and consumer product markets. Terms of the July 25 deal were not released.
With annual sales of $8 million (£5 million), Arrowtip has a foam molding facility in Norwich, England, and two molding and fabricating operations in London, employing a total of 85. Tuscarora of New Brighton plans to consolidate the Norwich operation into Arrowtip's London molding facility and Tuscarora's United Kingdom administrative headquarters and plant in Northampton, England. An undisclosed number of employees will be laid off, the company said.
The firm also said it continues to experience lower-thanexpected profit margins at certain manufacturing facilities, principally those recently acquired and at plants opened this year.
AES expands production facility in Wales
AKRON, OHIO — Advanced Elastomer Systems has more than doubled the size of its thermoplastic elastomer production plant in Newport, Wales.
Details were not released, but officials said the project increases the global capacity of the Akron-based firm 40 percent. The expansion, which opened in May, also doubled the Newport work force to more than 100.
AES also said it will have Santoprene 8000 thermoplastic vulcanizate in production at its Pensacola, Fla., plant by early 1998.
Paragon buys Johnson & Johnson plant
JACKSONVILLE, TEXAS — Injection molder Paragon Medical Inc. has acquired a 40,000-square-foot Texas factory from Johnson & Johnson Medical Inc., a move that will double Paragon's sales to $20 million a year.
Paragon announced July 29 it will purchase Johnson & Johnson's Sterion sterilization container system, and take over management of the leased Jacksonville injection molding facility.
Terms were not disclosed, but Paragon said Johnson & Johnson had $10 million in annual sales from the plant, equal to Paragon's annual sales before the purchase.
Paragon bought the closed-container sterilization system to allow it to offer containers for both closed and open sterilization systems, said Ron Vanderpool, vice president of business development. Previously, it had sold only open-container sterilization products and computer software for managing instrument delivery. The company will be looking to acquire an instrument manufacturer in the near term. Paragon wants to provide custom instrumentation only, Vanderpool said.
The Texas facility officially changes hands in October. It has 35-40 employees, but both Vanderpool and Andrews said they did not know the number of processing machines at the plant.
Both Paragon's previous plastics equipment and the Johnson & Johnson's container use a type of polysulfone, Vanderpool said. Privately held Paragon is based in Pierceton, Ind.
British court settles BP-Carbide feud
LONDON — Union Carbide Corp. and BP Chemicals Ltd. battled to a 1-1 tie in a legal fight over polyethylene and polypropylene process patents in a British cour