A private investor has signed a letter of intent to purchase McHenry, Ill.-based injection molder Novation Industries following a string of leadership changes after its owner, Chris Metz, was arrested on child pornography charges late last year.
"[Metz] made the decision … to sell the company in early December," Robert Marten, interim CEO of Novation Industries, told Plastics News in an interview.
Earlier this year, Novation's then CEO, Scott Baxter, told PN that he and then-President Lee Shawback were working on a letter of intent to buy out the company from Metz.
"Negotiations weren't going well with [Baxter and Shawback]," Marten said. "There was no progress made on selling the business to those two gentlemen and there were competing offers.
"The process was never an exclusive one," he said, adding that Metz wanted to see "more than one offer to get the value of the company."
"For the best interest of the company, Metz made the decision to change leadership because it would have been a very uncomfortable situation" if he had retained Baxter and Shawback after rejecting their proposal, Marten said.
Since then, an unnamed private investor has signed a letter of intent to purchase the company. The deal is expected to close within the next four to six weeks, Marten said.
Marten will stay on at Novation as interim CEO through the transition of the sale.
"Eventually there will be a permanent CEO," Marten added. "The new owner will have primary input on hiring."
Metz still has no involvement in the business "other than … requests for information … related to the sale of the company," Marten said. "[Metz] will have no involvement once the business is sold."
In conversations with customers, Marten said, "their primary concern … is that they continue to get quality product on time and at a competitive price. Obviously, the customers are interested in the eventual outcome of the sale process."
The sale is "going to turn out well for the employees of the company," he said. "They'll have new leadership that will be focused on the future and opportunities for personal and professional growth. … We're focused on improving performance levels throughout the company."
Information about the case against Metz remains closed to the public, a spokesperson for McHenry County, Ill., told Plastics News in an email.
According to McHenry County, Ill., jail records, Metz was jailed on Dec. 5 and released the next day. According to the McHenry County Police Department, Metz was initially charged with one count of child pornography, which is a felony.
According to court records, Metz is now charged with 11 counts of felony possession of child pornography. The case remains under investigation.