Flextronics International Ltd. subsidiary Lynx Medpak Inc. completed its acquisition of Buffalo Grove, Ill., mold making assets from Berry Plastics Group Inc. on Oct. 31, according to industry sources. Neither Flextronics nor Berry acknowledges the transaction.
The move continues Flextronics' initiative to establish high-end tooling capabilities apart from the firm's less critical mold making and injection molding resources in Asia.
Nasdaq-traded Flextronics contracts to deliver design, engineering, manufacturing and logistics services to original equipment manufacturers.
In Buffalo Grove, in addition to the mold making effort, Flextronics is setting up customer-owned injection molding machines in clean rooms and other space.
The Illinois deal represents Flextronics's second purchase of a medical market-oriented domestic mold making shop. The contract manufacturer acquired Tech Mold Inc. of Tempe, Ariz., in November 2013, again without disclosing the transaction.
Sources indicate that Lynx Medpak has acquired two mold making shops in the U.S. Northeast and Europe, but, as expected under confidentiality limitations, neither of those businesses responded to Plastics News' requests for comments.
On Flextronics' behalf, registered agent Corporate Trust Co. of Wilmington, Del., filed for the Delaware incorporation of Lynx Medpak in September 2013 listing a San Jose, Calif., address. Singapore-based Flextronics operates largely through U.S. administrative offices in San Jose.
A CT office in Phoenix filed in May to establish a Lynch Medpak branch in Arizona listing Paul Humphries as the business's president, director and CEO. Flextronics' filings list Humphries as president of its high reliability solutions unit since 2011.
A CT branch in Plantation, Fla., also filed in May for a Lynx Medpak entity in Florida.
In Buffalo Grove, the massive three-building manufacturing campus — including about one eighth for mold making — was developed under the ownership of Courtesy Corp.
Courtesy principals continue to own the facilities and lease them.
After Courtesy's bankruptcy auction in 2002, Precise Technology Inc. of North Versailles, Pa., became the operator of the site. London-based Rexam plc acquired Precise in November 2005.
Evansville, Ind.-based Berry took over the Buffalo Grove mold making operation in May.
Montagu Private Equity of London purchased Rexam health care devices division in May and rebranded the operation in July as Nemera, which runs multiple plants globally and occupies a major portion of the Buffalo Grove site for medical device manufacturing.
