Formerra buys distribution business in Ireland to build health care offerings

Less than six months after an ownership change, resin distributor Formerra LLC has made a deal of its own, acquiring Irish materials supplier Total Polymer Solutions for an undisclosed price.

Romeoville, Ill.-based Formerra has worked with TPS of Dublin for more than a decade, Formerra officials said in an April 4 news release. TPS sells into Ireland, the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe. The firm serves the manufacturing operations of multinational health care customers.

TPS co-founders and owners Ronan Kennedy and Eamonn Keane and all of the firm's employees will join Formerra. TPS was launched in 2002 and distributes a wide range of resins, compounds, concentrates and thermoplastic elastomers.

The acquisition "will enable Formerra to strengthen its global health care distribution platform while building on both companies' shared capabilities around rapid product development, innovation, and regulatory support," CEO Cathy Dodd said in the release.

She added that the deal "enables us to better serve our global health care customers in Europe with streamlined supply chain management and faster go-to-market support."

Kennedy and Keane said that Formerra's leading product design and manufacturing support services, in combination with TPS's strong in-region market presence, "positions us to be nimble and meet customers' unique requirements."

In a statement to Plastics News, Formerra officials said that Ireland has developed as "an attractive location" for many multinational health care device OEMs and their supply chains.

"Many of these device manufacturers have operations in Ireland and Europe, so the ability to leverage existing relationships to further serve these customers has the potential to improve our market share," they added.

Moving ahead, Formerra "plans to pursue accelerated growth both organically and inorganically," officials said. "With HIG Capital's support, we are investing in the business to deliver exceptional customer service and technical support to our customers on a global basis."

"We will continue to pursue acquisitions that provide us with additional exposure to attractive end markets like health care and that broaden our geographic footprint," they added.

Miami-based HIG acquired Formerra — the former Avient Corp. resin distribution unit — in a $950 million all-cash deal that closed Nov. 1. Dodd led the distribution business for Avient since 2020 and took on the CEO role at Formerra.

As part of Avient, Formerra posted 2021 sales of a little more than $1.6 billion. The business distributes resin and compounds for 21 suppliers, including Dow Inc., BASF and LyondellBasell Industries.