Joint Venture Tool & Mold LLC has acquired Ideal Tool Co. Inc., picking up new capabilities in molding, more employees, a larger customer base, and a new home and name.
The combined companies and their 65 employees are now called Ideal Tool & Plastics Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Joint Venture, and Joint Venture has consolidated operations at Ideal's facility in Meadville, Pa., said Joint Venture Chief Executive Officer Richard Moroco in a July 2 telephone interview.
Merging the operations made sense, Moroco said. Both companies were located in Meadville, and both firms make high-precision molds, but the acquisition of Ideal also brings the company previously known as Joint Venture the ability to mold parts as well, either for full production or for short trial runs.
``It's a vertical move for Joint Venture in the supply chain,'' he said. ``It's a nice fit with what we're trying to do in the industry, and some of the information that we've been picking up from customers is that they wanted us to be more capable in terms of taking on some molding.''
The name change to Ideal Tool also should help with some minor confusion sometimes created when customers asked what, exactly, Joint Venture was a joint venture of, he admitted. The company name dates to its founding in 1988. The Moroco family purchased the business in 2001.
The companies did not disclose the purchase price. Ideal's former president, Donald J. Smith, will remain with the merged company as operations director and has a 15 percent stake in the firm.
Ideal began as an injection mold toolmaker and added molding to its business in 1997. It now has 19 presses, with about 70 percent of its sales coming from molding, primarily electronic connectors used in the automotive, medical and telecommunications industries.