Big deal updates

Some big names in global manufacturing are changing hands -- something that's happening so much lately that it seems almost commonplace. Our sister paper Crain's Detroit Business has a report on its Web site today updating progress on the sale of automotive supplier Delphi Corp. The story notes that Delphi is continuing to talk with a group of private-equity funds about a bankruptcy buyout plan, even though a deadline for the offer expired yesterday. Delphi, which had filed for protection from creditors in 2005, has a pending $3.4 billion offer from a group of investors that includes Appaloosa Management LP, Cerberus Capital Management LP, Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund I, Merrill Lynch & Co. and UBS Securities LLC. Delphi is No. 2 in our ranking of North American injection molders. Meanwhile, Techtronic Industries Co. has finalized its $107 million purchase of Whirlpool Corp.'s Hoover floor care business. According to Crain's Cleveland Business, Techtronic is combining Hoover with its existing Dirt Devil and Royal operations in Glenwillow, Ohio, to create TTI Floor Care, North America, billed as the largest floor care business in this continent. Chris Gurreri, 41, was named president of TTI Floor Care. He had been president of Techtronic's Royal Appliance Manufacturing Co. subsidiary. Gurreri told Crain's Cleveland that the company already has begun drawing up plans for a R&D center in Glenwillow that will house design and engineering employees. It plans to add 110 jobs at the center during the next three years. “We're recruiting people already,” he said. The Hoover brand has suffered in the last few years, he said, under owners that openly shopped the business. What about the future of Hoover's injection molding operations, including its big North Canton, Ohio, plant? It's too early to say. TTI Floor Care said it will “assess all operations of Dirt Devil and Hoover, beginning immediately, to determine its specific manufacturing and distribution strategies.”