In an injection molding deal, QMI Group of Lakeshore, Ontario, has acquired Muncie, Ind.-based TomKen Plastic Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed price.
TomKen employs about 50 at a 55,000-square-foot site. The 58-year-old firm has annual sales of $9 million in injection molding and mold making work, along with prototyping, tooling and part validation primarily for the automotive market.
Tom Shields and Ken Yount founded TomKen in 1960. Shields later acquired Yount's share of the business. TomKen later passed to Shields' daughter Randi and her husband Bruce Carmichael, who joined the firm as a toolmaker in 1979 and eventually became its president.
"I'm excited for the company to have a good future," Carmichael said in an Oct. 3 interview with Plastics News. "QMI wants to stay [in Muncie] and grow here."
Carmichael added that TomKen generates 75-80 percent of its sales from the automotive market, while also doing some work in consumer and medical. The firm operates 23 injection molding machines with clamping forces ranging from 20 tons to 1,000 tons.
QMI was founded in 1986 by Bill Szekesy, who remains its sole owner. In addition to Lakeshore, the firm operates two other plants in Ontario and a plant in Orangeburg, S.C. QMI has injection molding, thermoforming, mold making and tooling for several markets including automotive, industrial and marine.
In a phone interview with PN, Chief Operating Officer Boris Gavric said that TomKen's location in the Midwest U.S. "helps [QMI] with our customers." He added that QMI would benefit from access to TomKen's lower tonnage injection presses.
"We probably looked at 18 companies in the last year and a half," Gavric said. "It's kind of like going on a date. You're trying to find a good fit with the companies and their culture. We felt the team at TomKen was very strong."
There also was "zero overlap" between the two firms' customer bases, according to Gavric. Unlike TomKen's auto-heavy sales mix, QMI generates only about 25 percent of its sales from that sector, he added.
Gavric also said that QMI is interested in making more acquisitions, possibly in the Midwest or Southeastern U.S. The TomKen acquisition increases the size of QMI's work force to 500 and lifts its annual sales to $75 million, he added.
TomKen was represented in the deal by MBS Advisors of Florence, Mass. MBS now has worked on 96 transactions since being founded in 1997.
