Tubing systems and medical component supplier Plastiflex Group has acquired Smooth-Bor Plastics and signed an agreement to acquire TIK d.o.o., expanding its medical tubing systems capacity in North America, Malaysia and Slovenia.
Medical and industrial components manufacture Smooth-Bor Plastics, with factories in Laguna Hills, Calif., and Johor Bahru, Malaysia, specializes in heated tubes for continuous positive airway pressure devices and other tubing systems and masks for the respiratory care market.
Smooth-Bor will maintain its headquarters in Laguna Hills, Calif., "which will be a hub for the development of tubing systems and extrusion lines for the combined entity," a March 6 news release said. Its manufacturing facilities in Laguna Hills and in Malaysia will both continue their production.
The existing Smooth-Bor leadership team, CEO Eric Carlson, President and Chief Financial Officer Steve Caiozzo, and Jennifer Carlson, executive vice president, will remain in place, the release said.
The partnership will extend Plastiflex's product portfolio in the sleep and ventilation markets and offer additional production capacity in the U.S. and Southeast Asia, it added.
Plastiflex also has manufacturing in Statesville, N.C. It is No. 66 in Plastics News' ranking of pipe, profile an tubing companies in North America. In 2020, it purchased Smooth-Bor's VacPro and Armor brands of industrial vacuum, swimming pool and RV hoses.
Plastiflex also signed an agreement to acquire disposable medical device manufacturer, TIK d.o.o. from Batagel & Co., according to a March 12 news release.
Based in Kobarid, Slovenia, the company specializes in coated urethral catheters and produces a range of tubing systems for applications in the field of respiratory care, gynecology and gastroenterology.
The TIK production facility will continue operations at its production site in Kobarid, which will become Plastiflex's "center of excellence for the development of urethral catheters," the release said.
The partnership with TIK will extend Plastiflex's product portfolio in the fluid management market and offer additional clean room production capacity in Europe, supporting the group's operational strategy of "regional self-sufficiency," it said.
The existing TIK leadership team, including Petra Borovinšek, managing director of TIK, also remains in place.
Plastiflex Group will now have 12 manufacturing facilities world-wide with seven health care operations in the U.S., Mexico, Germany, Slovenia, Turkey, and China and Malaysia.
"We are confident that [the partnership with Smooth-Bor] will provide both operational and commercial benefits to all customers thanks to the expanded product range and the global manufacturing footprint with additional health care production capacity," Piet Gruwez, CEO of Plastiflex, said.
"We are happy to reinforce our fluid management business by partnering with TIK that offers a state-of-the-art production facility and by adding urology as a new end-market within our fluid management health care vertical," Gruwez said.
Paal-Beringen, Belgium-based Plastiflex Group employs more than 1,400 people across 12 international production sites and other subsidiaries.