Private equity firm Riverside Co. of Cleveland has sold its majority stake in plastic and metal seal maker Stoffel Seals Corp. for an undisclosed price.
Riverside sold its stake to Tyden Group Holdings Corp., a competing seal maker based in Livingston, N.J. Stoffel management, which owned the remainder of the firm, also sold its stake to Tyden.
More than half of the seals that Nyack, N.Y.-based Stoffel produces are based on plastic. The firm makes protective and decorative seals used for security, marketing and other purposes.
Stoffel, founded in 1941, also makes a line of name badges and promotional items.
Most of Stoffel's plastics work is done at an injection molding plant in Tallapoosa, Ga. The firm also operates a plant in Laval, Quebec, and a machine shop in Nyack.
Riverside had owned its stake in Stoffel since 2004, and took a number of steps to improve the business, according to Riverside partner Kristin Newhall.
Riverside reduced the number of Stoffel's business lines from nine to two by exiting metal stamping and other less-profitable areas, Newhall said in an Oct. 7 phone interview. Riverside also brought in CEO Jerry Anderson, who previously had run a plastics laminating business owned by Riverside.
Anderson will leave Stoffel once the sale is completed.
In 2005, Riverside directed Stoffel's purchase of competitor Canada Mayer, which brought the Laval plant into the firm. Stoffel also closed a production plant in Nyack in 2007.
“We made Riverside a more strategic asset and accelerated its growth,” Newhall said. “It grew nicely, but it was time for us to move on, which was the intention of our strategy.”
Stoffel now employs 200 and has annual sales of about $40 million.
For Riverside, it's the third time in two years that the firm has sold a plastics-related business. Earlier this year, Riverside sold its ownership stake in window film maker Commonwealth Laminating & Coating. In 2009, Riverside sold Hudson-Sharp Machine Co., a producer of bag-making machines.
Riverside still owns a pair of plastics-related firms — medical injection molder Coeur Inc. and processor Connor Sport Court International.
In spite of the recent sell-offs, Newhall said Riverside remains interested in making other plastics acquisitions.
“Plastics is still a nice business to be in,” she said. “We'll look for opportunities to do more.”