A fledgling supplier of vinyl windows and doors is looking to make big moves in the North American residential construction market, including plans for an initial public offering and to acquire fabricators with combined annual sales of $200 million.
Part of Lebanon, Ind.-based Simplex Building Products Inc.'s strategy is to grow using low-cost PVC profiles purchased from extruders in Asia, said Cliff Wright, chief executive officer of Houston-based Kreuz Holdings.
Kreuz Holdings will secure the various acquisitions for Simplex in the coming months and years. The general goal is for Simplex to be a $200 million company by the end of 2007, Wright said.
``We don't have any preset limits,'' he said. ``We're going to go into this, take it a step at a time, and grow as fast as we need to grow.''
Simplex officials expect its stock to be publicly traded within two years. The company currently is preparing to sell securities that will be listed on the Small Cap Nasdaq stock market.
Among the companies that make up Simplex is injection molder CMI Engineering Inc., also based in Lebanon. CMI founder Steve Peabody is president of Simplex.
CMI has a history in the Pacific Rim - the company specializes in contract molding, assembly, toolmaking and design through joint ventures with Chinese companies. For Simplex, Asian operations will start small and grow over time, Wright said.
``We're starting with the simple idea of bringing in raw PVC product into the U.S. to be a feedstock for the fabricators here that we're acquiring,'' he said. ``PVC is getting more and more expensive. We expect to have not only a stable product, but at considerable savings.''
It would be a natural evolution for Simplex, Wright said, eventually to fabricate windows and doors that could be sold in Asia in addition to the United States.
Per the planned IPO launch, Simplex is offering 5.2 common shares at $1.25 per share to the institutional and individual investors.
