A management team led by President Jeff Hollinger is joining with Boston-based private equity firm New Heritage Capital LLC in a recapitalization of EPTAM Plastics Ltd., a fabricator of precision-machined plastics components.
“We're actually very excited about the transition. I look forward to working with New Heritage,” said Hollinger, in a telephone interview.
Northfield, N.H.-based EPTAM specializes in multi-axis machining of high quality plastic parts with tight tolerances for a multitude of industries, including aerospace, defense, semiconductor, medical, industrial and power generation.
“We really do tend to focus on high-performance materials primarily because we do real precision machining. Part of our strategy has been to be diversified over multiple industries and we found that it has served us well. Even in 2008 and 2009 we continued to grow,” Hollinger said.
The company has more than 100 employees in a 62,000-square-foot facility that it built in 2001. It was founded by Dick Dearborn 32 years ago, originally called EP Tool & Machine. Hollinger was named president in 2000.
The decision to recapitalize came about, according to Hollinger, because the company wanted to continue its growth and family members of the founder wanted liquidity. The ownership team looked at many options, but decided that New Heritage was the right partner.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Hollinger noted that EPTAM and New Heritage have similar desires to grow the company.
“We look for a passionate management team with a growth oriented business plan that is looking for a partner. EPTAM fits the bill perfectly,” said Judson Samuels, a principal with New Heritage.
“We want to work with the company to implement the next steps of its growth objectives,” he added.
Samuels said that New Heritage had previously worked for five years with a precision metal company, Centra Industries of Cambridge, Ontario. That company grew rapidly with a contract to supply parts to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It was sold to Precision Castparts Corp. in 2012.
He said New Heritage learned about the industry from its association with Centra, but has no timetable in place for EPTAM.