Longwood Industries LLC took another step outside its core rubber business in March when it purchased KT Industries Ltd., its second acquisition of a plastic films manufacturer in a little more than a year.
Florham Park-based Longwood will group Winnipeg, Manitoba-based KT Industries with Scott Office Systems LLC, a Detroit-based plastics firm that Longwood bought in January 2004.
KT supplies specialty tapes and index tabbing films to the graphic arts, packaging, and wire and cable industries. Scott Office makes index tab and reinforcing film for binding and publishing.
``There will be some intercompany activity'' between Scott Office and KT, said James Hartnett, president and chief executive officer of Longwood. Hartnett declined to say how much Longwood paid for the companies.
Hartnett said he believes Longwood can apply its lean manufacturing methods to film making. KT employs more than 150 in the United States and Canada.
Longwood is considering other unidentified rubber and plastics acquisitions, Hartnett said. ``We have a number of things on our plate at the moment,'' he said.
