Bag maker and recycler Novolex is being sold by two private investment firms to a third private investment group.
Hartsville, S.C.-based Novolex, which has made a series of acquisitions in the past four years under ownership by Wind Point Partners and TPG Group, is being acquired by Carlyle Group for an undisclosed amount.
Sales have grown from $500 million to more than $2 billion since 2012 at Novolex, which has acquired a litany of companies in recent years, including Fortune Plastics, Heritage Bag and Wisconsin Film & Bag. Wind Point started the investment with its 2012 purchase of Hilex Poly and later changed the name of the company to Novolex.
Along with a deep involvement in plastic bags, the company also makes paper-based packaging.
Novolex has a broad range of customers for its plastic bags, including the retail, grocery, food service, hospitality, institutional and industrial markets, the company said.
The company also operates two plastic film recycling facilities in the United States, including a site in North Vernon, Ind., that the company holds out as the world's first and largest closed-loop plastic bag recycling and manufacturing plant.
“Novolex is a great company with strong market positions and long-standing customer relationships,” said Wes Bieligk, a principal on Carlyle's U.S. buyout team, in a statement.
Novolex CEO Stan Bikulege, who remains with the company, said in a statement that the deal is “the next big step for Novolex. ... We are deeply grateful to Wind Point Partners and TPG Growth for their steadfast support and leadership over the last four years. We would not be where we are today without them.”
It was last summer that Wind Point Partners reportedly decided to put Novolex up for sale, according to a Reuters story at that time.
Novolex will have 49 locations and more than 7,000 employees when its pending purchase of Burrows Paper Corp.'s packaging operations is finalized.
TPG originally purchased Hilex Poly in 2009 after the company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and retained a minority stake in the firm in the deal with Wind Point.
Novolex has grown to become the seventh largest film and sheet maker in North America, according the latest Plastics News rankings, with estimated annual sales of $1.2 billion. All of the company's sales are from film. Overall company sales are estimated at $2.3 billion.
