Holding company SabreTech Inc. has acquired C-Plastics Corp. and, separately, the assets of Emplast Inc.'s proprietary media security products business.
Terms were not disclosed.
The combined SabreTech and C-Plastics businesses will have annual sales of about $30 million, John Prepolec, president of SabreTech of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., said in a telephone interview.
SabreTech purchased Leominster, Mass.-based C-Plastics from entrepreneur Gordon Curtis and his family March 24. Curtis, who has almost five decades of experience in the plastics industry, and his wife, Susan, founded the business in 1982.
SabreTech appointed Charles Goldman as C-Plastics president. Goldman, a son-in-law of the Curtises, had been C-Plastics' general manager.
In March, C-Plastics, primarily a molder of decorative plastics and an automotive supplier, extended its reach and opened a Huntsville, Ala., facility for warehousing parts closer to several customers and handling some assembly.
The business in Leominster employs 80, occupies 85,000 square feet and operates 18 injection molding presses. The equipment includes 16 Nissei horizontal-clamp machines with clamping forces of 60-650 tons and two Autojector vertical-clamp presses.
C-Plastics had 2004 sales of about $17 million.
In its early years, C-Plastics designed and molded automotive light pipes, lenses and other clear components, often using insert molding. Other current product lines include decorative lens/mask and dial/mask assemblies and sealed electronic enclosures.
C-Plastics has a strong technical base, in part because of its connections with the University of Massachusetts at Lowell's plastics engineering program.
In 2001, SabreTech acquired Martinsville, Ind., and El Paso, Texas, plants from LeRoy Bowden. Those locations, which have operated as Mag Inc., have a diverse market base supplying the consumer electronics, appliance and automotive markets.
The Martinsville plant employs 30, occupies 32,500 square feet and operates 13 injection molding presses of 28-610 tons. The 48,000-square-foot El Paso site employs 55 and operates 13 presses of 40-385 tons and a paint shop.
``We will be expanding the press range in El Paso up to 700 tons within the next three months,'' Prepolec said.
The Leominster site is ISO 9002 and QS 9000 certified and TS-16949 compliant. Martinsville and El Paso are QS 9000 certified.
In the security-packaging deal, SabreTech acquired one of Chanhassen, Minn.-based Emplast's four product lines and the related brand identity. Major retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Toys ``R'' Us Inc. use the products to deter theft.
SabreTech obtained molds, intellectual property, including patents, and some specialized equipment. Phil Sykes was named manager of its security products business unit. Sykes held a comparable position under Emplast.
SabreTech and Emplast set a complicated arrangement in motion Dec. 31 and completed the transaction March 31. During the transition, work on polycarbonate security packages was moved to the Martinsville plant, and work on polypropylene products moved to El Paso. Both locations began shipping security-packaging products in March.
The investment in loss-prevention packaging diversifies SabreTech. Most of two dozen cases protect discs containing software programs, video games or music.
Sykes sees the El Paso location as a potential gateway to markets in Latin America. ``We are expanding internationally,'' Sykes said.
Separately, in a previously announced deal, Imperial Custom Molding Inc. of Rogers, Minn., in February acquired Emplast's custom molding business, including blow molding and injection molding equipment.
