Mexico City — Mexican polyethylene rotational molder Grupo Rotoplas S.A.B. de C.V. is selling all its manufacturing assets in the U.S. to Tank Holding Corp.
As part of the agreement, completed July 5, Rotoplas will sell all such assets at three plants in Merced, Calif., Atlanta and Dallas to Tank Holding, which has corporate offices in Lincoln, Neb., and St. Bonifacius, Minn.
The deal marks the second acquisition in less than a month for Tank Holding, which purchased two sister companies in Texas in June: Poly-Mart, a molder of water and industrial storage tanks, and WRP Containers, which makes large refuse containers.
Tank Holding is, by far, the largest rotomolder in North America, with 22 plants and $250 million in sales in 2017, according to the most recent Plastics News ranking of rotomolders.
Rotoplas invested $10 million for its first manufacturing plant in the United States, in Merced, in late 2014. The plant, which makes rotational molded water storage tanks, employs about 100. The Atlanta and Dallas plants were added in 2015 and 2016.
A Rotoplas spokeswoman in Mexico City, where Rotoplas has its headquarters, told Plastics News July 8 that all three operations were conducted in leased plants.
She described the transaction between Rotoplas and Tank Holding as an "all cash" deal but otherwise revealed no financial details.
Rotoplas, which has been listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange since December 2014, said in a news release that the deal with Tank Holding is part of its strategy to "simplify operations and focus on its e-commerce platform in the United States."
"We are satisfied and convinced that this alliance [with Tank Holding] will help us focus our efforts on the e-commerce platform, which is key to our strategy of growth and innovation of the company," Rotoplas CEO Carlos Rojas Aboumrad said.
Rotoplas describes itself as a provider of individual and integrated water solutions. It has 27 product lines and operates a score of manufacturing facilities across the Americas. It employs about 3,000.