Wellspring Capital Management LLC has purchased flexible packaging manufacturer Jen-Coat Inc. from CGW Southeast Partners IV LP of Atlanta. Terms were not disclosed.
Jen-Coat is the first subsidiary of a new holding company formed by New York-based Wellspring and longtime industry executive Harold Bevis, who will serve as chairman and CEO, according to an Aug. 5 news release.
Jen-Coat founder and CEO Jim Kauffman and his management team will remain with the Westfield, Mass., company, and Kauffman will serve on its board of directors.
“In part due to recent consolidation, the flexible packaging industry needs a new high-end competitor and we are going to create one,” Bevis said in the release. “We will build the company through greenfield investment, capacity expansion, organic growth, continued development of innovative technologies and synergistic acquisitions.”
Bevis has led three private-equity-backed buildups, serving as:
* CEO of Pliant Corp. of Schaumburg, Ill., from 2003 until its sale to Berry Plastics Corp. of Evansville, Ind., in 2009.
* CEO of Jordan Telecommunications Products Inc. from 1998 until its sale to Emerson Electric Co. in 2000. He remained with Emerson as group vice president until joining Pliant.
* Senior vice president and general manager of General Cable Corp. from 1995-98. The firm was taken public during his tenure.
He also held executive roles at General Electric Co., was a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. and an engineer at General Dynamics Corp.
“Harold Bevis has a track record of value creation in the packaging industry and we are delighted that he will lead our new company,” said Wellspring managing partner Carl Stanton.
Jen-Coat's extrusion-coated and laminated, metalized and adhesive laminate structures are used in food packaging, flexible lidding, single-use packets, composite medical substrates, label products and release liners. The company can combine paper, fabric, film and foil into composite substrates to meet performance attributes such as flavor control, shelf life, transmission rates for moisture vapor and oxygen, and package mechanical integrity.
The firm uses 10-color printing equipment at its two plants, which total 370,000 square feet and are compliant with food and medical industry requirements.
Jen-Coat, founded in 1972 in Westfield as an extrusion coating business, was sold in 1990 to American Business Products, a publicly traded office supply company. In early 2000, ABP was acquired by envelope and label manufacturer Mail-Well Inc. Later that same year, Jen-Coat management partnered with CGW Southeast Partners to buy back the Jen-Coat business.
Brookwood Associates LLC of Atlanta was financial adviser to Jen-Coat during the Wellspring acquisition.