After making nine acquisitions since 2018, custom profile and tubing extruder Pexco LLC is the company changing hands with Odyssey Investment Partners LLC resuming ownership.
The Atlanta-based private equity firm, which had owned Pexco from 2012-17, bought the company from AEA Investors, a private equity firm based in New York that had acquired Pexco in 2018.
The deal was announced March 16. Terms weren't disclosed.
With estimated sales of $250 million in the region, Pexco is the 19th-largest pipe, profile and tubing producer in North America, according to Plastics News' latest ranking.
Pexco has manufacturing plants in the United States and Mexico producing a variety of products and components for the traffic safety, lighting, fluid handling, electrical insulation, privacy fence and other markets.
Pexco CEO Sam Patel and the management team will continue to lead the acquired company and have invested in the transaction with Odyssey, according to a news release about the transaction.
"We are very familiar with Pexco and are thrilled to partner again with its proven and experienced management team," Craig Staub, a senior managing principal at Odyssey, said in the release.
He also described what attracted Odyssey to Pexco again.
"Pexco has evolved into a company focused on a diverse range of industrial businesses with deep industry relationships and stable demand across attractive end markets," Staub said. "Pexco has the ability to continue scaling its business by applying its unique operational capabilities to address customers' most challenging applications. As Pexco continues to expand to new end markets and high-performance polymers, we look forward to leveraging our resources to support the company's long-term growth and continued industry leadership."
Jonathan Hall, a principal at Odyssey, said Pexco management has "done a fantastic job since we last worked together," particularly executing nine strategic acquisitions to grow the business and capitalize on new market opportunities to broaden Pexco's product portfolio and geographic reach.
"Their hard work to strategically expand operations, add capacity and drive efficiencies has placed Pexco in a strong position to capitalize on multiple organic growth opportunities in today's market environment," Hall said.
Pexco's most recent acquisition was Performance Elastomers Corp. of Ravenna, Ohio, in November. PEC makes dense and sponge elastomer products, including both rubber-based and thermoplastic elastomers for recreational vehicle, automotive aftermarket, marine and heavy equipment uses.
Before that, Pexco purchased Altaflo LLC of Sparta, N.J., to offer high-performance fluoropolymer and fluoroplastic extrusions for the aerospace, pharmaceutical, energy and electronics industries.
The other acquisitions included Greensboro, N.C.-based Exlon Extrusion Inc., which produces nylon, polyurethane, polypropylene and polyethylene pneumatic tubing and recoil hose products; Jasper, Ga.-based NDM Marking Systems Inc., a maker of traffic markers; Bally, Pa.-based HPE Extrusion Solutions, a producer of complex shapes and sizes of tubes and rods for the HVAC, automotive and utility markets; American Extruded Plastics Inc. and American Injection Molding Inc., which operate from the same facility in Greensboro, N.C.; Insultab Inc., a manufacturer of heat-shrinkable and nonshrink tubing products in Woburn, Mass.; the fence products business of Polyform Inc.; and Custom Extrusion Inc., which has sites in Sheffield, Mass., and Asheboro, N.C.
After growing to this point, Patel said the Pexco team is thrilled to welcome back Odyssey Investment Partners as the majority owner.
"During our previous partnership we benefited extensively from the Odyssey team's guidance in developing and prioritizing both organic and inorganic growth initiatives, leading to a very successful outcome," Patel said. "We are very pleased that Odyssey has once again recognized Pexco's considerable potential in its target end markets. We look forward to resuming our collaboration and continuing our growth trajectory through the next chapter in Pexco's storied history."