Cap, closure and jar maker Mold-Rite Plastics LLC is being sold by one investment firm to another.
Mold-Rite, based in Plattsburgh, N.Y., focuses on the health and wellness markets, but has a broad range of products for a wide variety of segments that also include specialty food and personal care.
Terms of the deal between seller Irving Place Capital and buyer Clearlake Capital Group LP and the company’s management were not disclosed.
Mold-Rite CEO Brian Bauerbach said in a statement joining with Clearlake will help the company take advantage of “emerging growth trends.”
“Clearlake’s operational knowledge and resources will allow us to grow our position in the market while we continue to innovate,” he said in a statement.
New ownership will provide Mold-Rite with additional capital to start considering acquisitions as part of the company’s growth strategy, said a person familiar with the deal.
After being acquired by Irving Place Capital in 2010, Mold-Rite made two acquisitions in 2012 but has been quiet on that front since them.
Dilshat Erkin, vice president at Clearlake, indicated in a statement that Mold-Rite will look to expand under the new ownership “both organically and by completing strategic acquisitions in this highly fragmented sector.”
Along with the Plattsburgh location, Mold-Rite also has manufacturing locations in Twinsburg, Ohio, and Somerset, N.J.
Mold-Rite does the vast majority of its business in caps and closures with about 10 to 15 percent in jars. The company designs and makes products to order and counts pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, personal care, specialty foods and industrial and as key markets.
While Mold-Rite now will place a greater focus on the potential for acquisitions, the company’s ability to grow from within also is being enhanced through additional capital that will be available through Clearlake, according to the source familiar with the transaction.
Mold-Rite has experienced double-digit growth annually over the past several years, and new ownership is viewed as an opportunity to increase that level even higher, the source said.
Clearlake, of Santa Monica, Calif., also owns Pretium Packaging LLC, a rigid packaging maker that just acquired Alpha Consolidated Holdings Inc. It’s a move that vaults the combined company into the top 10 blow molders in North America.