Materials firm Color Master Inc. has expanded its business model by acquiring resin supplier Rainmaker Polymers LLC.
Warsaw, Ind.-based Rainmaker distributes generic grades of polyethylene and other commodity resins. The firm also sells compounds and concentrates that are toll compounded for Rainmaker by other firms.
Rainmaker was founded in 2007 by John Urschalitz and Lee Luckasevic, both of whom had management experience at compounder Polycom Huntsman.
CMI of Butler, Ind., makes color and additive concentrates as well as PVC compounds. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In a Sept. 17 video interview, CMI President Kyle Skaggs said the acquisition allows CMI to enter resin distribution and other large volume markets. "These were new markets that we couldn't get into in the past," he said. "This [deal] gives us the opportunity to take the middle man out."
Skaggs also said that at various points, CMI and Rainmaker had been competitors, customers and suppliers to each other.
Urschalitz plans to retire soon, with Luckasevic and Rainmaker's other half-dozen employees staying with CMI. Urschalitz said Rainmaker had multiple suitors looking to buy the firm, but Skaggs "was aggressive in a positive sense."
"We started down the path, and we liked Kyle and his attitude and [CMI's] attitude, so it seemed like a natural fit," he added. "And it will be good to have six or eight more people out there selling each other's products."
CMI makes color and additive concentrates at its headquarters in Butler and PVC compounds at a plant in Kendallville, Ind. The firm installed a new PVC compounding line and mixing system in Kendallville, increasing the site's annual production capacity to 60 million pounds.
CMI also plans to add a new extruder for color concentrates in Butler by the end of the year. These moves will allow CMI to add six new jobs.