Minnesota Rubber buys UK-based Primasil

Minnesota Rubber and Plastics is extending its manufacturing footprint into Europe for the first time with the acquisition of Primasil Silicones Ltd., based in Weobly, United Kingdom.

Terms of the acquisition, which closed March 7, were not disclosed.

"With its global footprint and proven expertise in the elastomer and thermoplastic marketplace, MRP provides a platform to utilize the skills that Primasil has developed and access to a diverse marketplace that will benefit from its knowledge," Steve Wheeler, Primasil managing director, told Rubber News. "Without the operational and commercial expertise of MRP, Primasil would not be able to fulfill its potential. Given the current demand for technical rubber products across the globe, we felt it was the right time to work with a partner like MRP."

Primasil, founded in 1978, offers platinum-cured and conductive silicones, black rubber, fluorosilicones, and low smoke and toxicity silicones. The company provides precision manufacturing and clean room molding, as well as extrusion capabilities in Weobly, as well as another location in the Czech Republic.

And while MRP maintains more than 3,000 custom compounding recipes for black rubber, it has never mixed its own silicone in-house — until now.

"One of the biggest advantages of this acquisition is that we do not compound our own silicone, so this was very attractive to us," said Dave Furlong, vice president of global sales and marketing at MRP. "Silicone products remain in high demand for precision engineered products."

Primasil brings about 175 employees to the 1,300-person MRP, all of whom will become owners of MRP through its employee ownership program, offered by Americas at KKR, the third-largest private equity firm in the world.

The KKR model differs from an Employees Stock Ownership Program, which is meant to hold stock for the long term and often ends up owning the entire company.

"As with the rest of companies [acquired], everyone becomes an owner," Furlong said. "This drives alignment and is a very powerful tool, ultimately having the ownership stake.

"They take part in value creation day-in and day-out."

Primasil's facility in western England has about 55,000 square feet, including 3,000 square feet of clean room area. The remainder is manufacturing and warehouse space, according to Furlong.

Complementing this warehouse space is another 25,000 square feet of full-scale molding space that Primasil — and now MRP — has in the Czech Republic.

MRP will retain the Primasil brand, as "Primasil, a Quadion LLC company."

Furlong said MRP "is always having conversations" with companies, exploring acquisition opportunities. It is how MRP has grown to become a global company, with 10 locations across North America, Asia and Europe.

"MRP is, by nature, a very inquisitive company, exploring how we can advance solutions for customers," Furlong said. "We had a relationship [with Wheeler] for a couple years and now turned out to be the right time for Steve and for us.

"Anytime there is an opportunity to add additional capabilities — in this instance with silicone — we pursue those when we can. This acquisition truly expands our capabilities in an unmatched way in the global elastomer space. This drives us to the top of our game in materials science."

Primasil's expertise in the medical space fits well with MRP's highly engineered, development-to-final-product processes, which include applications in the transportation, water and medical spaces.

MRP offers testing services, in addition to compounding, processing and fabricating.

Primasil's low-smoke, low-toxicity silicones have application in "rail and mass transit scenarios," Furlong said, while its fluorosilicones are used in higher chemical "resistivity-type" products for plastics applications; and its conductive platinum-cured silicones are used in electronics.

"There are three main things that make Primasil a great fit — they have a highly competent, technically sound team ... they are experts in their field," Furlong said. "We pride ourselves on being experts in our fields and they have done the same in the silicone space. ... Adding that team is a big deal and they complement our mission to be a key differentiator."

MRP CEO Jay Ward said Primasil adds geographic and technical advantages.

"We have a long history of successfully serving our customers in Europe, and the addition of a highly technical production presence in the U.K. and Czech Republic will allow us to take our local capabilities to the next level," Ward added.

MRP (Quadion LLC) acquired Pawling Engineered Products in June 2021, giving the company a greater presence in the inflatable seal and extruded solutions space.

Based in Pawling, N.Y., Pawling offers clamps, custom compression seals, gaskets, tubing and other fabrications, as well as inflatable seals.

"We're thrilled to add Pawling, a company with a 75-year history of supplying unique, highly specialized elastomer solutions for mission-critical applications, to our family, and believe their dedication to superior in-house product design and custom materials formulation is highly complementary to MRP's capabilities," MRP's Ward said at the time. "Innovation is at the heart of what we do, and this acquisition comes at an important time in our company's history, as we're set to expand and invest in technologies that drive highly differentiated value for our customers."

Craig Busby, president of Pawling, said the "synergy is good for all stakeholders"

"The Pawling team is extremely excited about this opportunity," Busby said. "We are ready to take this next step. The cultures at MRP and Pawling align perfectly, recognizing employee engagement and market-driven innovation as the cornerstones of success. We're not just acquiring great products and intellectual property; we're adding a great team. We plan to extend ownership participation to all the new colleagues we welcome with Pawling."

Busby continues to lead Pawling under the auspices of MRP.

With a goal of reducing the development process time for customers from 10 weeks to two weeks, an ambitious goal in a world squeezed by supply line restrictions, MRP is on pace to open its $6 million Innovation Center May 1, according to Furlong.

Projects that require the development of products for demanding applications will be funneled through this 8,500-square-foot research and development facility, where MRP and customers will work hand-in-hand.

"For the most challenging applications, you have to understand the best design," Furlong said. "The main goal is to have all up-front design and collaboration steps under one roof.

"We are striving to achieve a process where the time-to-market is not 10 weeks, but rather two weeks for our customers. With these capabilities we can remove that (extended) development time and get the product to market sooner."

The center will feature dedicated testing and manufacturing equipment for any type of black rubber (and now silicones), and take projects from the materials science phase, to tooling, to design iteration, to manufacturing of high-volume runs.

And all of this will be accomplished through intensive intellectual capacity and proper design equipment, Furlong said.

The center, to be located in Minneapolis, did create jobs, mostly engineering positions that already have been filled at MRP, though a specific number of jobs (for the new center) was not disclosed.

The acquisition of Primasil will complement the launch of the Innovation Center, MRP said.

"Not only will the acquisition augment our materials science and manufacturing capabilities, but it will also expand our global scope—particularly in the medical end market—and further our plans to expand our European footprint while we actively look to partner and acquire technical elastomer companies across the region," Ward said.