Firstline buys Cady Industries assets
VALDOSTA, GA. - Flexible packaging maker Firstline Corp. is becoming a major producer of polypropylene woven fabric.
The Valdosta-based firm bought the assets of Cady Industries, a PP woven fabric producer in Pearson, Ga., that had shut down in mid-March.
Firstline had been planning to enter PP woven fabric production by installing two tape extruders and 60 looms in its Valdosta plant. The firm now is moving the equipment to Pearson, where it will join four tape lines and 75 looms formerly operated by Cady.
The purchased capacity will more than double the volume planned by Firstline in that in-house project, Firstline President Don Murphy said in a telephone interview. Murphy said markets for the PP materials are diverse and include geotextiles, house wrap, roofing materials, industrial packaging and engineering fabrics. His firm has been spending about $9 million a year on the PP fabric.
He did not disclose terms of the May 5 deal. He said Cady was hurt by imports from China.
Included in the purchase is a 10-year industrial development agreement with Atkinson County and the city of Pearson for investment of $4 million, county and city tax incentives, and the hiring of 150 employees. Eventually the Pearson plant will employ more than 200, Murphy said. Production at the site resumed May 24.
Murphy said Pearson and Atkinson County were hit hard by the Cady closure because the plant was the largest industrial employer in the area.
Firstline recently expanded in Valdosta with the addition of a large extrusion coater/laminator. It produces a range of flexible packaging, including blown film and shrink film.
Perlos expanding plant in Hungary
KOMAROM, HUNGARY - Custom molder Perlos Oyj plans to spend 15 million euros ($18 million) to expand its plant in Komarom, making it the company's largest production facility.
Growing demand in mobile phones and electronics, particularly in central Europe, prompted the investment, according to the Nurmijärvi, Finland-based company.
The plant makes metal and plastic components, and also does painting. The 135,000-square-foot plant will grow to 232,000 square feet, and should be finished by the beginning of next year.
Injection molding accounts for about 20 percent of the plant's output, said Tage Johansson, Perlos executive vice president for business development. The company wants to win a large role in its customers' manufacturing chain, so it is expanding downstream services and adding design and assembly operations.
``Hungary is an important area geographically for Perlos, because the company delivers mechanical modules from there to many of its global customers, both in the [telecommunications] and automotive industries,'' Perlos said in a news release.
Management team buys Britton Group
WINSFORD, ENGLAND - Britton Group, the second-largest flexible plastic packaging company in the United Kingdom, has completed a £46 million ($83.3 million) management buyout, its second in six years.
The buyout team, led by Mike Clark, former Tyco Plastics UK division chief executive officer, is backed by an £18.7 million ($33.8 million) capital injection from London-based private equity provider LDC, part of the Lloyds TSB banking group.
Clark, who took over as Britton Group CEO in November, plans an expansion starting this year to boost European market share, according to the company.
The takeover follows the retirement last year of Britton's executive chairman, Dick Searle, who had headed the company for more than three years.
``The original MBO management team has been completely replaced and it's fair to say the original business plan was probably somewhat ambitious and lacked [depth], and it did not get realized,'' said Barry Turner, managing director of the company's Britton SMR unit and one of the seven-man buyout team.
Britton employs more than 850 at six film extrusion, printing and converting plants across England. The company has 70 lines to make blown and cast film. The Winsford-based company has annual sales of about £90 million ($163 million).
