Xaloy Inc. has a new private equity owner — Industrial Growth Partners of San Francisco.
In a deal announced Oct. 24, IGP bought Xaloy from Baird Capital Partners. Terms were not disclosed. Xaloy makes screws, barrels and extrusion-related equipment like pelletizers, gear pumps and screen changers.
Most members of top management will remain in place, including Tim Womer, chief technical officer, Xaloy North America President Randy Pearson and Gunther Hoyt, executive vice president.
But there will be one major change at Xaloy, as Walter Cox, president for 25 years, steps down from that position as well as chief executive officer. Newcomer Ron Auletta will take over those positions effective Nov. 1.
Cox will continue as a board member and an investor. Cox said other Xaloy management probably will be given a stake, but details are not finalized. Xaloy is based in New Castle, Pa.
Auletta comes to the screw and barrel business from GED Integrated Solutions Inc. in Twinsburg, Ohio, which makes machinery to fabricate vinyl windows and doors, and equipment to fabricate insulating glass. He has been president and CEO at that company for nine years.
Industrial Growth Partners is an $825 million firm that focuses on middle-market industrial manufacturers.
IGP made another plastics-related deal this year, buying a majority stake in Atlas Material Testing Technology LLC, a Chicago- based maker of testing equipment.
In 2004, Cox was among a 10-member management team that bought Xaloy from Saurer AG of Switzerland, with backing from Baird Capital Partners. The year before, Xaloy had purchased New Castle Industries Inc., a competing screw and barrel maker.
Xaloy picked up the extrusion-equipment business of Dynisco LLC in 2006.
Cox said Xaloy's annual sales have doubled in the past four years to $112 million. Xaloy employs 620 people, he said.
Bob Tunno, an IGP official who becomes chairman of the board at Xaloy, praised Cox for ``helping build Xaloy from a one-plant operation into a global leader in melt-delivery systems.''