HARTSVILLE, S.C. — Sonoco Products Co. has rounded out its reel products for the cable and wire industry with its purchase of Wood Composites Technology, a maker of wood and recycled-polyethylene reels.
The Hartsville firm gained Wood Composites' technology and plant for an undisclosed amount. Sales from the purchase should top $10 million a year, Sonoco claims.
The composite reels will complement Sonoco's Baker-brand wood and steel reels, making Sonoco a full-line reel supplier for the wire and cable industries, said Peter Browning, Sonoco president and chief executive officer.
Sonoco would not say how much of the market it controls.
Wood Composites uses post-industrial and post-consumer PE and wood fiber and compression molds the materials into reels. Sonoco expects the composite reels to replace wood reels in certain sizes and niche markets, Charles Reid, vice president and general manager of the Baker unit, said by telephone. Baker is based in Hartselle, Ala., and has six plants around the country.
Sonoco is a $2.6 billion industrial and consumer packaging products maker with about 275 operations in 32 countries.