Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • NPE exhibitors question handling of deposits for canceled trade show
      Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Getting back on the road
      How long will it take for EVs to replace internal combustion engines?
      Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      COVID-19 stories dominate 2020 headlines
    • Kickstart: Heading back to the office ... sometime
      Kickstart: 'Have an adventure in life'
      Kickstart: More toys for your collection
      Kickstart: Microchips, masks and US manufacturing
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • Plaskolite wins 3M supplier award
      Green feet: Braskem partners with Dansko on bio-based clogs
      Curbell donates plastic sheet for prosthetics project in Ecuador
      Covestro volunteers build ramp for Ohio veteran
    • There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
      ACC, NAM eye economic priorities in Biden presidency
    • Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      Just how big is thermoforming in North America?
      Changing names for compounders embracing corporate branding
      Diversity the key to outperforming the market
    • Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      The benefits of getting social
      Rising Stars shine bright future on industry
      Getting back on the road
    • Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
      Perspective: ‘Fake news' of a different sort?
      Perspective: Making products in the USA is good for the planet
    • Mailbag: Additional fees for electric vehicles ‘unfortunate'
      Mailbag: Where's the plastics industry's response to critics?
      Mailbag: Manufacturers struggling to follow COVID-19 safety rules
      Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
      Video: Structural foam molding
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      College training, programs
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
      Polymer Points Live - October 2020
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Sponsored By Ensign Equipment
      Filling Systems Customized for Any Process or Budget Need
      KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
      Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
      Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Canon Virginia Inc. brings collaboration to the table
    • KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Shell
      Sponsored By Shell
      Food and Beverage Trends Impacting the Polymer Industry
      Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
August 27, 2012 02:00 AM

Schulman buying ECM, selling Ohio plant

Frank Esposito
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    A. Schulman Inc. is continuing its buying spree and also has reached an agreement to sell an Ohio plant.

    The Fairlawn-based compounder and distributor said Aug. 20 it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ECM Plastics Inc., a privately owned plastics compounder in Worcester, Mass., for $36.5 million. It also announced the sale of its PVC compounding plant in Bellevue, Ohio, to a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.

    ECM employs 140 and generates about $40 million in annual sales. The firm operates nine twin-screw extrusion lines and one single-screw line at a 120,000-square-foot plant, making custom compounds and color and additive concentrates based on most major commodity and engineering resins. The transaction is expected to close in early September.

    The ECM deal is the sixth acquisition in less than three years for Schulman, which ranks as one of North America's 30 largest compounders and concentrate makers. Most recently, Schulman in January paid $63 million for specialty color concentrate maker Elian SAS of Oyonnax, France.

    “With ECM's expertise in custom color matching, higher-value compounding and specialty additive formulations, we believe they are an excellent strategic fit as we continue to focus on niche products,” said Joseph Gingo, Schulman chairman, president and CEO.

    Gustavo Perez, general manager and chief operating officer of the Americas for Schulman, said the acquisition of ECM “will expand our capabilities in a number of markets, especially personal care and cosmetics, where ECM has a strong presence.”

    In an Aug. 22 phone interview, Gingo added that Schulman and ECM hadn't competed against each other much, even though they make similar products. Adding materials in the cosmetics and personal-care sectors “will allow us to sell a whole portfolio,” he said. “With these products from ECM, we now can do a sell-through of our whites and engineering plastics.”

    ECM President Wayne Marquis and partners Mike Madden, John Coz and Randy Youngsma founded the firm in 1996. Marquis, Coz and Youngsma will remain after the sale to Schulman. Madden passed away in 2010. The four had worked together for more than a decade at Coz Plastics, a Northbridge, Mass.-based compounder founded by Coz's father, Henry. They launched ECM by purchasing the three-line compounding unit of American Polymers Inc., a materials supplier in Oxford, Mass.

    ECM added its ninth twin-screw line last year in a move that increased its production capacity by 15 percent. Annual capacity now stands at between 20 million and 25 million pounds. Cosmetics/personal care is the firm's largest end market, generating 25-30 percent of sales.

    ECM also last year leased 48,000 square feet of warehousing space in nearby Clinton, Mass. ECM also may use the Clinton site for blending or pulverizing work in the future. It already had been leasing 50,000 square feet of warehousing space at an adjacent building in Worcester.

    In an Aug. 23 phone interview, Marquis said Madden's death in 2010 led to the other ECM partners thinking about what the next step for the business should be.

    “There's not really a second generation to take over the company,” he said. “And when something like [Madden's death] happens, it makes you look at things a little bit. Things can change suddenly.

    “We also had a fair number of customers looking for global supply,” Marquis added. “We'd done a good job of bringing the company to this point. But to bring it further, it helps to have global reach.”

    ECM began to seek out a buyer more than a year ago. “We started to look around and see what other opportunities were out there,” Marquis said. “We were looking for someone to continue the business along the same lines.

    “We're pleased to pass the torch to a company like Schulman.”

    Polymer Transaction Advisors Inc. of Newbury, Ohio, advised ECM on the deal. PTA President Bill Ridneour said he “was pleased to advise on a transaction between two parties who have such a strong business and cultural fit.”

    “ECM's location, high-value-added concentrate and compounding business and strong management and technical team will enable Schulman to accelerate its own growth into these higher-value-added products,” he added. “This is a great example of buyer and seller playing to each other's complementary strengths.”

    The deal marks Schulman's first U.S. acquisition since early 2010, when it bought compounder ICO Inc. of Houston and color concentrates maker McCann Color Inc. of North Canton, Ohio. Since then, the firm has made acquisitions in São Paulo (compounder and concentrates maker Mash Compostos Plásticos) and Santiago, Argentina (a majority stake in rotational molding powders maker Surplast SA), as well as Elian in France.

    Schulman spent almost $300 million on those five purchases. The firm also spent $14 million earlier this year to form a joint venture with Saudi Arabian firm National Petrochemical Industrial Co. to build a polypropylene compounding plant in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.

    Gingo said the U.S. remains an important market for Schulman.

    “We came close to doing a few more deals in the U.S., but could not agree on the selling price,” he said. “One of the things we've wanted to do since I came on as CEO is to make the U.S. look more like our European and Mexican operations, which were profitable.”

    In that area, Gingo has been successful. Schulman's U.S. operations posted an operating loss in 2007, but have contributed 22 percent of the firm's operating income so far in its 2012 fiscal year.

    The sale of the Bellevue plant to Mitsubishi Chemical Performance Polymers Inc. in Greer, S.C., means Schulman has sold off all five of its “legacy plants” that mainly had been doing volume automotive work when Gingo took the helm. Since then, Schulman has exited that work to focus on the higher-margin color and engineered plastics markets.

    Terms of the sale of the 80-employee Bellevue plant were not disclosed; however, Schulman said it will not incur any significant gain or loss on the sale. Schulman had been toll-producing PVC-based compounds for Mitsubishi there, as well as compounds based on thermoplastic elastomers for its own product mix.

    Last year, Schulman and Mitsubishi dissolved Sunprene Co., a PVC-related joint venture between the two firms that had been in operation since 1988. Mitsubishi now will toll-produce TPE compounds for Schulman at the Bellevue site.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Processor of the Year submissions