ALP Lighting Components Inc. of Niles, Ill., has acquired plastic optical component maker Spectrus Inc. and its LexaLite, Genesta and PSI brands. Terms were not disclosed.
ALP gains four additional plants, more than 200 employees and ``a broader offering of lighting components for fixture manufacturers,'' said David Brown, ALP president and chief operating officer. With the additional resources, ``we believe we are unique among U.S. plastics suppliers to the lighting industry,'' he said.
LexaLite International Corp. injection molds plastic optical refractors in Charlevoix, Mich. and Dickson, Tenn.; Genesta Inc. extrudes profiles in another Charlevoix plant; and Plastic Specialties Inc., or PSI, extrudes sheet and thermoforms lenses in Olive Branch, Miss.
Summa Industries of Torrance, Calif., acquired LexaLite in 1996, PSI in 2000 and Genesta in 2002 and, through Spectrus, was trying to consolidate its lighting businesses. In mid-October, publicly traded Summa was sold and now operates privately as Habasit Holding USA Inc. of Corona, Calif., a subsidiary of Habasit Holding AG of Reinach-Basel, Switzerland.
Habasit bought Summa primarily for its modular plastic chain and conveyor belting businesses. Those Summa subsidiaries, acquired as Falcon Belting Inc. and Rainbow Industrial Products Corp.'s Ram Belts & Chains division and including KVP Holdings Inc., report now through Habasit USA subsidiary Habasit Belting LLC of Sewanee, Ga.
After three months of discussion, Habasit's sale of Spectrus to ALP was completed June 18.
``We saw the synergies between the two companies as substantial,'' said Steve Brown, ALP chief executive officer and brother of David Brown.
ALP, originally Advanced Lighting Products Inc., was established in 1972 to manufacture components for Niles-based Bill Brown Sales Co., a lighting product sales agency with roots back to 1955. Industry statesman Bill Brown is ALP chairman and the father of David and Steve Brown.
Prior to the acquisition, ALP employed more than 700.
The Spectrus acquisition is ALP's third in five years. ALP purchased Triboro wiring devices of Tijuana, Mexico, in 2002 and Steel Craft Industries of Newark, N.J., in 2004. ALP relocated Steel Craft operations making unwired fluorescent fixture assemblies to ALP sites in Lithia Springs, Ga., and Apodaca, Mexico.
ALP has several plastics processing operations.
A Pennsauken, N.J., facility injection molds, thermoforms and extrudes components in making parabolic louvers and lenses. The Apodaca plant near Monterrey has capabilities for rotary thermoforming, compression molding and liquid-pour gasketing. The Tijuana site compression molds, injection molds and fabricates components for fluorescent, incandescent and high-intensity-discharge lamp holders and other wiring devices. The Lithia Springs plant focuses on metal processes.
Privately held ALP withholds sales figures.
