Madison, Wis.-based Strandex Corp. has acquired Mount Horeb, Wis.-based toolmaker Wire Works Inc., and expects to make another purchase soon.
``On a subcontractor basis, they've built a lot of dies for us over the last eight to nine years,'' said Strandex President Al England in an April 29 telephone interview. ``As we've grown, we decided that we should bring the die-manufacturing side of the business in-house.''
Strandex plans to relocate Wire Works and its six employees from a 4,500-square-foot plant in Mount Horeb to a newly refurbished, 13,000-square-foot facility adjacent to Strandex headquarters in Madison. The new plant will be fully operational in July, England said.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Wire Works specializes in custom wire electric discharge machining. The company operates five EDM machines.
Strandex develops wood-plastic composites technology and licenses it to several lumber extruders. The company's latest development is called Strancel - a wood-composite foaming technology.
``Every day, interest in our foamed [polyethylene-based] and PVC-based composite technologies grows because they present so many new product opportunities,'' England said in a Strandex news release announcing the deal.
``The Strandex and Wire Works engineering complex here in Madison is a resource licensees may tap into for materials technology, extrusion technology, and now, in-house die and calibration design and manufacturing technology specifically for composite product and process development,'' Brian Keller, Strandex operations manager, said in the release.
While this is Strandex's first acquisition, it will not be its last, England said, promising another announcement in about month.
Strandex has several licensees, including Composatron Manufacturing Inc., Kroy Building Products Inc., Universal Forest Products Inc., Premium Composites LLC and a handful of European and Asian extruders.