Elmhurst, Ill. — Auxo Investment Partners, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based private equity firm, is expanding its portfolio of cutting die manufacturers with the purchase of GC Dies LLC.
Terms were not disclosed. GC Dies has 50 employees in a 37,500-square-foot factory in Elmhurst. The company makes flat corrugated, rotary corrugated and flat steel rule dies used by converters.
GC Dies was founded in 2000 and claims to be one of the largest U.S. steel rule cutting die manufacturers.
According to Auxo, this marks the fifth acquisition under the Auxo Die Holdings platform. The previous purchases include Atlas Die, AtlasFlex, Bernal Rotary Dies, Midway Rotary Die Solutions, and DieCraft Engineering & Manufacturing.
"We are bringing the industry's leading converting solution companies together to create the most comprehensive service offering available in the industry, and the addition of GC Dies is an important step in the process," Jerry Mosingo, CEO of the Auxo Die Holdings platform, said in a news release. "As we continue to expand — and service many of the world's leading converting companies — we know our fully integrated solutions can meet virtually any challenge."
The company plans to move Atlas Die's Chicago operations to Elmhurst. In the first quarter of 2021, Auxo will unite the die business under a single brand.
"When we considered the full impact of this acquisition, it was obvious that adding GC Dies would make us even more competitive in the Midwest marketplace and enhance our overall platform — which was already the broadest selection of tooling for the converting industry," Auxo Managing Partner Jack Kolodny said in the release.
Auxo has been making other converting-related acquisitions outside the die sector. On Sept. 1, it purchased Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Paramount Tube Engineered Solutions and Cleveland-based Euclid Medical, which both operate under the brand Precision Products Group Inc. That firm makes custom-engineered spiral wound tube and pharmaceutical packaging.