Graham Partners plans to expand its plastics holdings by acquiring National Diversified Sales Inc., a Lindsay, Calif., injection molder of proprietary irrigation and drainage products. Graham announced Feb. 3 that it signed a definitive agreement to buy NDS. Robert Newbold, a principal with Graham, said terms will not be disclosed.
NDS will have sales of about $70 million this year, Newbold said in a telephone interview from Graham Partners' Wayne, Pa., head office.
NDS runs injection molding plants in Lindsay and in Troup, Texas. Its product lines include more than 3,500 items for irrigation and drainage. Last year it expanded by acquiring Agrifilm Irrigation Products Inc., a Fresno, Calif., producer of drip and micro-irrigation products.
Newbold said Graham Partners will operate NDS as a discrete company. Graham Partners, along with Graham Group and Brera Capital, own another plastics firm, Western Industries Inc., a large-part blow molder, injection molder and metal fabricator based in Milwaukee.
"Graham Partners' investment in NDS is representative of our conviction that value exists in companies that are involved in converting products from traditional materials (e.g. wood, metal, paper, glass and concrete) into plastics or composites," Graham Partners' managing principal William McKee said in a news release.
NDS has been owned by Churchill ESOP Capital Partners since 1995, when Churchill Capital Inc. of Minneapolis and Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin of Los Angeles formed the partnership. Newbold said the purchase should be finalized by late February.
Graham Partners is affiliated with Graham Group, the majority owner of blow molder Graham Packaging Co. LP of York, Pa.