Private equity firm PMC Capital Group LLC has acquired expandable polystyrene resin maker StyroChem Canada Ltd. for an undisclosed price.
Los Angeles-based PMC is buying the business from Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC of Santa Monica, Calif., which had owned StyroChem for 11 years.
StyroChem makes EPS grades used in foodservice, packaging, construction, casting and specialty applications at a plant in Quebec City. The business has annual sales of more than $100 million. Officials declined to provide employee totals or production capacity information.
PMC officials said in an Aug. 21 news release that "for over 40 years, StyroChem has consistently produced among the highest quality EPS products for customers ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. and abroad."
They added that PMC Capital is partnering with existing StyroChem management team on the transaction. StyroChem President Glenn Wredenhagen said in an Aug. 22 phone interview that PMC will have a majority stake in the firm.
Wredenhagen added in the release that the partnership with PMC "will allow us to continue operating from our facility in Quebec, and most importantly, serving our existing customers and product lines, as well as aggressively pursue growth opportunities, both organically and through future acquisition."
PMC managing member Michel Tamer added that his firm "is excited to partner with StyroChem's management team and help lead the business through the next stage of its growth."
"We see significant opportunities to deepen relationships with existing customers through product innovations," Tamer said. As an example, he cited StyroChem's proprietary EVRgreen-brand EPS, which officials said "promotes biodegradation."
"It's going to be business as usual," Wredenhagen said Aug. 22. "We're excited to get into PMC's portfolio. We fit well with their other companies."
Montreal-based StyroChem was founded in 1975 as Expandable Technologies. Officials said that the firm was one of the first manufacturers of EPS for foodservice applications.
PMC Capital is a unit of PMC Global Inc., a privately held management company founded by Phil Kamins, a longtime plastics industry veteran. Other plastics-related businesses owned by PMC Global include compounder and concentrates supplier Plastics Color Corp. of Calumet City, Ill., films producer VCF Films of Holland, Mich., and machinery maker Polyurethane Machinery Corp. of Lakewood, N.J.
PMC Global now employs 3,500 worldwide in a wide variety of industries. PMC Capital targets "control investment opportunities" in the consumer, health care, business services and industrial sectors.