Flat die extrusion major Cloeren Inc. has strengthened its stake in the European market by increasing its investment in EMO GmbH, an extrusion die maker in Micheldorf, Austria.
“EMO provides Cloeren a quality repair/refurbishment base for our European customers,” said Cloeren director Alicia Cloeren in an April 27 news release. In turn, Orange, Texas-based Cloeren will help EMO, up to now mainly a regional supplier, expand its global presence.
Cloeren is a project-oriented supplier to the global flat die extrusion market and EMO is a component-oriented supplier, with very little overlap between the companies in the marketplace, explained Cloeren CEO Peter Cloeren in the release. The two firms will remain separate companies with their own sales and product lines and each will retain its management and infrastructure.
The lastest investment follows an earlier one made in late 2013 when they announced an agreement to cooperate on technical issues and to refurbish dies for each other in their respective domestic markets.
EMO is part of the Haidlmair Group, a leading producer of high-tech injection molds for packaging and industrial uses. EMO was established in 1996, 17 years after Haidlmair GmbH was founded in Nussbach, Austria.
“This new investment from Cloeren will be used for a significant expansion of EMO, including new machine tools to be housed in a new building addition,” stated Haidlmair Managing Director Mario Haidlmaiar in a news release.
Cloeren and Haidlmair are both family-owned corporations. Cloeren's annual sales are 12 times larger than EMO's, Alicia Cloeren said in an email.
Haidlmair consists of six companies in four countries and operates around the world.
Cloeren has three manufacturing facilities in Orange, Texas, as well as in Eau Claire, Wis., and Marshall, Texas. It also has operations in Europe and a sales and service network in more than 50 countries. The company announced a significant expansion in Orange in 2012 and Alicia Cloeren stated further investments are ongoing.
Founder Peter Cloeren built the first version of the company's feedblocks in 1975, when he was employed with Gulf Oil Corp., now Chevron Phillips Chemical. The die was built for extrusion coating of a high density polyethylene skin layer onto a low density PE base layer for milk carton stock. The company owns more than 30 patents, which it claims is the most in the flat extrusion die industry.
At K 2016 in Düsseldorf, Germany, Cloeren is exhibiting at Hall 2, Booth G24.
