Automotive parts maker Creative Liquid Coatings Inc. has acquired the major assets of injection molder McKechnie Vehicle Components USA Inc. and plans to invest significantly in those operations.
The acquisition adds chrome plating to CLC's injection molding and painting operations and expands its geographic footprint beyond Indiana.
CLC purchased the assets through an Article 9 sale under the Uniform Commercial Code through Greater Nevada Credit Union. MVC had not declared bankruptcy but was considered distressed.
The acquisition saved more than 230 jobs at two locations, according to CLC, which will now employ 850 people.
With the July 30 purchase, CLC gained two plants and a sizable amount of manufacturing equipment.
In Nicholasville, Ky., CLC will now own a plant with 170,000 square feet of manufacturing space, 33 injection molding machines, two paint lines and two chrome plating lines, Stephen Geist, CLC general manager, said in an Aug. 20 email. The company said it plans "significant investments" to upgrade and refurbish the equipment.
In Newberry, S.C., CLC gains a 130,000-square-foot plant with six presses and a paint line that was installed last year to run custom painted bumpers for heavy-truck customers, Geist said. To support immediate growth at that site, CLC has ordered a new Milacron 3,000-ton press that should be delivered by September, bringing CLC's total press count at all its plants to 66.
At its Kendallville, Ind., headquarters campus of almost 50 acres, CLC has two injection molding plants that total 195,000 square feet and one 316,000-square-foot painting and assembly facility. The site's presses range from 100 tons to 3,600 tons of clamping force.
"This acquisition is a perfect fit for our company," Geist said in a news release. "We are responding directly to our customers' requests for a larger footprint to support their operations across the United States and also offer a full turnkey solution for molded, painted and chrome-plated parts."
MVC was headquartered at a leased office in Roseville, Mich., but CLC did not take over that facility.
Plastics News estimates CLC's annual sales at $120 million after the acquisition.