SencorpWhite Inc., the Cape Cod maker of thermoforming machinery, blister packaging and sealing equipment and automated equipment for storage and handling, has a new owner: Connell Limited Partnership of Boston.
Connell bought SencorpWhite on Nov. 1. Terms were not disclosed. Connell is a family trust.
Connell bought SencorpWhite from the machinery manufacturer's owners, a management group that included President and CEO Brian Urban, and Providence, R.I.-based investment firm Management Capital LLC. SencorpWhite employs 160 people at its 155,000-square-foot headquarters plant in Hyannis, Mass. — one of the few manufacturers on Cape Cod.
Connell focuses on manufacturing companies, and has more than $500 million available for investment. Urban, in a blog posting announcing the sale, said SencorpWhite fits the criteria that Connell wants in a company, including playing a critical part in the supply chain for global companies, have a leading market share and the capacity to expand geographically.
SencorpWhite's key markets include Sencorp machines to make blister and clamshell packages for consumer products, medical, food, cosmetics and electronics. The White side of the business makes equipment for storage and retrieval. Urban said Connell's investment will allow the company to capitalize on new products like WillCall Rx, an automated pharmacy, and RFID, which is growing in importance in the supply chain from packaging to storage and retrieval.
Urban, who remains as president and CEO, stressed that Connell is not a private equity company. “SencorpWhite will not be subject to ‘end of fund' exit or return requirements,” he wrote in his blog. “Instead, the firm focuses on growing businesses organically and through additional investments and acquisitions.
“While SencorpWhite has enjoyed continuous growth over the last five years, what I find particularly exciting is Connell's challenge to accelerate our growth even further through enhanced sales and marketing, new product development and strategic partnerships and acquisition,” Urban wrote in his blog, posted on the company's website.