UPDATED: Two Cleveland-area investment firms have completed a management buyout of Pittsburgh-area injection molder Allegheny Performance Plastics LLC.
Leetsdale, Pa.-based Allegheny now is owned by longtime executives Greg Shoup and Shevey Westbrook, along with JWI Capital LLC of Twinsburg, Ohio, and Squire Ridge Co. LLC of Beachwood, Ohio.
Financial terms were not disclosed in an April 15 news release announcing the deal. Shoup, the firm's president and Westbrook, its operations manager, “initiated the transaction and have become significant shareholders,” according to the release.
Allegheny had been owned by Allegheny Plastics Inc. The transaction does not include Allegheny Printed Plastics, a maker of credit cards and similar items in Cranberry Township, Pa. Allegheny Printed Plastics also is owned by Leetsdale-based Allegheny Plastics.
The deal allows Shoup and Westbrook to direct the future of the firm “rather than being bought by a larger competitor or a strategic partner,” Shoup said by phone on April 19.
They teamed with JWI and Squire Ridge, “because they share our long-term future of the company.”
Allegheny is being bought from the Yost family, which founded the company. Shoup said the second generation of ownership “is at retirement age, and the third generation isn't interested in being active with the company.”
Allegheny was founded in 1936 and provides high-performance molded parts for aerospace, automotive and general industrial markets. The firm recently molded cam sprockets for an all-plastic auto engine produced as a prototype by materials maker Solvay Advanced Polymers.
“We are fortunate to have the opportunity to back this talented management team,” Squire Ridge President Steven Ross said in the release.
The two private equity owners will be actively seeking add-on acquisitions to expand Allegheny Performance Plastics' geographic footprint, broaden its manufacturing capabilities and penetrate new markets, Ross added.
“The company had been growing by double digits for years, so its organic growth is solid and may be augmented with strategic acquisitions,” he said.
Shoup added that Allegheny now will be looking to add “equipment and employees.”
Squire Ridge also owns a stake in rotational molder Dutchland Plastics Corp. of Oostburg, Wis. Shoup — who has been with Allegheny since 1997 — declined to comment on how ownership of Allegheny will be divided.
He also declined to provide annual sales or employee totals for the firm. Shoup did, however, say that Allegheny has averaged 18 percent annual sales growth for the last six years.
Crain's Cleveland Business, a sister publication of Plastics News contributed to this report.