PolyOne Corp. has started 2019 with another acquisition, buying fibers and composites maker Fiber-Line in a $120 million deal.
Officials with PolyOne in Avon Lake, Ohio, described Fiber-Line as a global leader in customized engineered fibers and composite materials. Fiber-Line is based in Hatfield, Pa. and has annual sales of almost $100 million. It has a total of five production facilities, including locations in Hatfield; Hickory, N.C.; the Netherlands and China.
Fiber-Line was founded in 1987 and sells its products into the fiber optic cable, oil and gas, industrial and consumer industries. The firm also provides material science and polymer formulation expertise to engineer specified performance characteristics for fiber. These include strength, abrasion and chemical resistance, and specialty colorants.
Fiber-Line employs 200. PolyOne is buying the firm from Taglich Private Equity of New York.
"Fiber-Line is an innovative and unique addition to our portfolio of fiber and composite solutions with tremendous upside for growth," PolyOne Chairman, President and CEO Robert Patterson said in a Jan. 2 news release. "They provide an immediate leadership position in serving the build out of fiber optic cable and future 5G networks."
Fiber-Line now becomes part of PolyOne's Specialty Engineered Materials (SEM) unit. Officials added that Fiber-Line's leading technologies complement PolyOne's existing specialty composite solutions and wire and cable applications.
Fiber-Line CEO Dale Outhous added in the release that "through PolyOne's future investments in Fiber-Line's technical capabilities, operations and commercial reach, [Fiber-Line] will be able to serve our customers better than ever before."
The Fiber-Line deal is PolyOne's seventh acquisition since early 2017. Most recently, the firm in May purchased composites maker PlastiComp Inc. of Winona, Minn., for an undisclosed price.
PolyOne is North America's largest compounder and concentrates maker and one of the region's largest resin distributors. The firm posted 2017 sales of just over $3.2 billion.