Royal Group to get window blinds assets
WOODBRIDGE, ONTARIO — Royal Group Technologies Ltd. will buy U.S. window-covering production assets from U.S. Polymers Inc.
Woodbridge-based Royal will get capacity to make vertical and horizontal blinds, which will boost its window coverings business's sales by more than 10 percent, Royal announced March 16. The agreement also includes an alliance in which U.S. Polymers' international operations will supply Royal with certain window-covering components made outside North America.
Los Angeles-based U.S. Polymers will continue to own and operate its shutter and pipe operations.
Vic De Zen, Royal chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in a news release the deal broadens Royal's product line and increases its distribution. Royal expected to complete the deal last week.
Separately, Royal announced it completed the acquisition of window profiles extruder Thermoplast Inc. of Laval, Quebec.
Popoli sentenced in resin fraud trial
FORT MYERS, FLA. — Convicted plastics counterfeiter Thomas Popoli has been sentenced to almost three years in jail for charges connected to accusations he misrepresented low-priced Asian acetal resin as a higher-priced material made by Hoechst Celanese Corp. between 1993 and 1994.
Popoli, owner of Nylon Engineering Resins Inc. of Fort Myers, was sentenced earlier this month to 33 months in prison. He could have received a maximum sentence of five years.
Popoli's lawyer, Robert Harper of Fort Myers, had asked U.S. District Judge David Dowd Jr. to lower federal sentencing guidelines in the case because the conspiracy was not sophisticated enough to be covered by those guidelines, but Dowd refused, according to the Fort Myers News-Press.
Popoli told the judge his punishment was disproportionate to his offense and that his reputation as an entrepreneur and an employee had been ruined by his arrest, the News-Press reported.
A federal judge earlier had ordered Popoli to reimburse Hoechst Celanese, now doing business as Ticona, $4 million in damages and lawyers' fees. Popoli already had agreed to forfeit $350,000 in proceeds from sales of the counterfeit acetal.
Popoli has maintained his innocence, claiming he believed the material was made by Hoechst because it contained a marking that Hoechst uses. Neither Popoli nor Harper could be reached for comment.
Dowd has yet to decide if Popoli can remain free on bail while he appeals the sentence.
Peregrine hires bankers to find a buyer
SOUTHFIELD, MICH. — Automotive supplier Peregrine Inc. has hired investment banking firm BT Alex Brown to find a buyer for the company.
The company owns an injection molding plant in Oshawa, Ontario, that molds plastic bumper fascias, door panels and other parts. Peregrine also owns three metal stamping plants in Michigan and does some stamping at the Oshawa facility.
The company was purchased in May by turnaround artist Jay Alix and other investors after losing more than $50 million in 1997. Since then, the company has closed an injection molding plant in Livonia, Mich., and another Michigan facility.
Peregrine has sales of about $422 million and employs 2,200.
Fortune gains Parade Packaging assets
OLD SAYBROOK, CONN. — Fortune Plastics Inc. bolstered its Midwestern packaging position by acquiring assets of Parade Packaging Materials Co. in Mundelein, Ill.
The Mundelein plant extrudes and converts polyethylene and polypropylene film into bags, primarily for industrial and hospital uses, said Fortune President John Duhig. He did not disclose the plant's sales, but said by telephone it employs about 45.
Duhig said Fortune eventually plans to expand the Mundelein plant and broaden its product line. It will complement Fortune's other film and bag plants in Lebanon, Tenn.; Orlando, Fla.; Glendale, Ariz.; and Old Saybrook, where it is based.
Fortune's bag lines include trash-can liners, small bags, health-care products and supermarket sacks. Plastics News estimated Fortune's 1997 plastic film and bag sales at $84.5 million.
Parade President Eric Barns said his company sold the Mundelein operation because it would have required a significant capital investment to make it competitive. The firm continues as PPM Sales Inc., a Denver packaging distributor and broker.