A management team led by President Mark Panozzo has purchased Black Clawson Converting Machinery LLC, which makes cast film and extrusion coating equipment, from owner Carl Landegger.
Terms of the deal, announced March 17, were not disclosed.
Panozzo and several other managers - the exact number is not being released - have teamed with Hamilton Robinson LLC, a private equity firm in Stamford, Conn.
The company now will be called Black Clawson Converting Machinery Inc.
Panozzo said the company employs 160 at its plant and headquarters in Fulton, N.Y. The company has offered employment to all current employees.
``The relationship with Hamilton Robinson provides the new company with a strong financial foundation and access to additional capital for growth opportunities,'' Panozzo said.
Panozzo, a former executive of Rexam Coating Film & Papers, joined Black Clawson as president in 2000.
The company does not release annual sales, but sources said the number is about $50 million.
In addition to cast film and extrusion coating, Black Clawson Converting also makes coating and laminating lines, winders and slitters and extrusion pelletizers for resin production.
Most of the business is in plastics machinery, although the company also serves paper converting, Panozzo said.
The company used to make blown film equipment but exited that market several years ago.
This is not the first time Black Clawson Converting has been on the selling block. Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co. Inc. looked at buying the company in 2001, but talks ended after a few months.
Landegger, contacted at his New York office, said the deal closed March 14. Landegger, 72, is chairman of New York-based Black Clawson Co., but he said that company's name is being changed, to BC Holdings Inc., to avoid confusion with the operation in Fulton.