Custom injection molder Molded Devices Inc. has acquired Hamar Enterprises Inc./Grupo Innovador de Coahuila of Piedras Negras, Mexico.
Tempe, Ariz.-based MDI plans to increase the Mexican operation's blow molding and injection molding capacity.
“We've been working on this deal for a year,” Tom Star, MDI's injection molding president, said by telephone. He declined to divulge the transaction's terms.
He did, however, say that MDI will invest “over $2 million” in machinery for Hamar/GIC, adding that “plans will evolve over the next year.”
Asked whether the investment will focus on injection molding or blow molding machinery, Star replied: “We have several opportunities and it depends on which one comes to fruition first.”
According to Star, Hamar/GIC does “a little injection but no blow molding.” It employs “north of 350,” he said.
In a news release, MDI said that Hamar/GIC serves numerous Fortune 100 customers in and around Piedras Negras, which is about 145 miles southwest of San Antonio, Texas.
“MDI's intent behind the acquisition of Hamar/GIC is to grow our Midwest footprint with U.S. original equipment manufacturers wishing to capitalize on the molding and low-cost assembly services the Hamar/GIC plant offers,” MDI CEO Brian Anderson said in the release.
MDI's services include product design and development, industrial engineering, custom molding and assembly. Additional services include dip molding for markets such as medical, industrial, defense, aerospace and electrical.
“We see opportunities within our existing customer base,” said Star. He did not discount the possibility of diversifying into the booming Mexican automotive industry.
Hamar/GIC's Gabriel Bustamante, who has an engineering degree from Texas A&M, has headed the Mexican company for two decades and will continue in his role, according to the news release.
GIC serves various industries, primarily the communications industry in copper and fiber optic areas, from cross connect blocks, terminal blocks, protected entrance terminal blocks, as well as aerial copper and fiber optic closures and terminals.
MDI began operations in 1963 in California. In addition to the newly acquired installations in Mexico, MDI has manufacturing facilities in Tempe; Pleasanton and Riverside, Calif.; Miamisburg, Ohio; Oshkosh, Wis.; South Glen Falls, N.Y.; and Sellersville, Pa.