Sigma Plastics Group is acquiring Tara Plastics Corp. of Forest Park, Ga.
The Pompano Beach, Fla.-based maker of films and bags saw Tara as a good competitor and good operator that allows the company to further expand into the Southeast.
“We've known about Tara for a while now and their reputation is excellent in the industry. We had heard they were on the block,” said Mark Teo, president and CEO of Sigma Plastics.
“It just fits into the mold of Sigma Plastics Group getting good operations that are located strategically for us. The Southeast is an area where we continue to expand,” he said.
Tara, in the deal that closed April 30, becomes a division of McNeely Plastics Products Inc. of Mississippi. That company became part of Sigma Plastics in 2010.
“We've grown organically and through acquisitions, and then when we acquire people we like to grow those acquisitions as well,” Teo said. “Give them a lot of resources so those acquisitions can grow. Some of our recent acquisitions have tripled and quadrupled in size. That takes time, but that's what generally happens with our acquisitions.”
Tara Plastics had been owned by the Wilson family, but put up for sale with the help of Blaige & Co., an investment banking firm that specializes in plastics, packaging and chemicals mergers and acquisitions.
“As a specialist in superior quality three-layer converter film, Tara Plastics is an excellent addition to Sigma Plastics Group's portfolio of film extrusion capabilities. Further, the Company's zipper capabilities provide Sigma with an exciting product extension,” said Thomas Blaige, CEO of the investment banking firm, in a statement.
Tara, Teo said, is in “very similar markets to us. We were familiar with them through competing with them. But we always knew them to be very good competitor. Great quality, not disruptive to the market in a price way, just good operators.”
Sigma has 43 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada and Mexico with more than 5,000 employees. The company produces more than 2 billion pounds of single- and multi-layer films and bags annually. Tara started operating in 1983 and makes multi-layer films serving flexible packaging converters and industrial manufacturers, Sigma Plastics said.
Along with three-layer LLDPE film, Tara makes mono-layer PE film for industrial applications and extruded zippers for pouches, Blaige & Co. reported.
Tara was once part of a group of integrated family businesses that included Star Packaging, a flexible packaging converter. Star was spun off in 2011 and Tara “transitioned into an independent merchant business,” Blaige & Co. said.
