Polo Custom Products of Topeka, Kan., has acquired thermoformer Foarm Following Function Inc. of Santa Barbara, Calif.
Terms were not disclosed. Polo is a division of Topeka-based M-C Industries Inc.
Polo specializes in custom industrial sewing, radio-frequency sealing and thermoforming, using flexible materials including vinyl, nylon, urethane, aramids, Teflon, leather and other fabrics. Its products are used in medical, safety, outdoor, military and industrial applications.
Polo spokeswoman Angela Goodrich said Foarm Following Function, with 10 employees, is a good fit for Polo's operations.
“We just thought that while we're providing [customers with] design, engineering and product development services, Foarm specializes in thermoformed products and has in-house tooling development as well,” she said in an Aug. 24 telephone interview.
M-C Industries was founded in 1957 in Milwaukee as the plastics fabrication company Mark Clark by Topeka natives F. Mark Garlinghouse and LeRoy Clark. The founders later added a hyphen between the “Mark” and “Clark” in their company's name due to a threatened lawsuit by Army Gen. Mark Clark of World War II fame. Early products included vinyl furniture covers, a fiberglass insulated toilet cover to prevent condensation from forming on the tank and a baby bottle warmer that plugged into a car's cigarette lighter. The company competed with Polo Plastics, another Milwaukee-based firm, which M-C acquired in 1964. New owners in 1971 moved the corporate offices to Topeka.
M-C's operating units include Polo and Topeka-based Sunflower Graphics, a silk-screen printer and embroiderer of promotional sportswear.
Polo's products include accessories for Harley-Davidson motorcycles, cases for Medtronic defibrillators, bags for Medela breast pumps, oxygen bags used by airlines, spinal-fluid bags and self-contained breathing apparatuses used by miners and fire fighters.
M-C employs 450 at Polo plants in Santa Barbara; Monticello and Edgewood, Iowa; Louisville, Miss.; and the Sunflower Graphics plant in Geneva, Neb. It also imports customer-specific sewn and RF-welded products from a plant in Shenzhen, China.
The privately held company does not disclose sales.