Private equity firm Industrial Opportunity Partners has invested in Creative Foam Corp., a Fenton, Mich.-based engineering manufacturer that supplies die-cut, formed foams and composite core kitting to global companies in automotive, airline, medical and wind energy industries.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Creative Foam President and CEO David Swallow told Plastics News that Industrial Opportunity Partners is not a 100 percent owner of the company.
“What [the investment] will allow us to do is continue to expand,” Swallow said in a phone interview Oct. 9. “One of my philosophies in business is if you're not growing, you're dying, and this will allow us to continue our growth path.”
Swallow said future expansion from the investment could include adding jobs, facilities and equipment.
Creative Foam Corp. was founded in 1969 as a small automotive packaging company that has grown to 1,400 employees and 14 locations across North America, including manufacturing facilities in Michigan, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Tennessee and Mexico.
Swallow said the investment shouldn't affect current employees, and Creative Foam's management team will remain in place.
Phil Fioravante, an operating principal and a member of Industrial Opportunity Partner's board of operating principals, will assume the position of chairman on Creative Foam's board of directors.
