Lifoam Industries LLC, a maker of temperature-controlled packaging using expanded polystyrene, is being sold for the second time in five years.
Jadex Inc., which has owned Lifoam since 2019, is selling the company to Altor Solutions Inc., a subsidiary of Compass Diversified.
Chesterfield Mo.-based Altor is paying $137 million in cash at closing, excluding working capital and certain other adjustments, for the business.
Jadex will use after-tax proceeds from the sale to both pay down debt and invest in elsewhere in the company.
Lifoam makes a variety of products used to keep items cool, including EPS containers and refrigerant gel packs for shipment of medicines.
"We are honored to have been part of Lifoam's growth story and are immensely proud of how it has expanded its customer base and developed innovative products with eco-friendly, sustainable capabilities while part of Jadex," CEO Mario D'Ovidio of Jadex said in a statement.
"We believe that Lifoam is well positioned to succeed as part of Altor, a pure-play protective and cold chain packaging solutions business."
Altor has been growing via acquisition, most recently the 2022 purchase of Foam Concepts Inc. of Uxbridge, Mass. Other holdings include Foam Fabricators Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz.; Polyfoam LLC of Northbridge, Mass.; and paperboard manufacturer Rational Packaging LLC of Springfield, Tenn.
Lifoam came to Jadex as part of a much larger in 2019 deal that saw Newell Brands Inc. sell its Process Solutions business to investment firm One Rock Capital Partners.
At the time of that earlier sale, Process Solutions was described as a maker of plastic, nylon and monofilament serving the health care, consumer and industrial markets. Part of that deal also was a portion of the business that makes coin blanks for currency around the world, including zinc blanks for the U.S. Mint's production of pennies.
Compass Diversified is a publicly traded holding company based in Westport, Conn., that also owns the Sterno brand of portable food warming products. The company previously owned Camelback brand of plastic water bottles from 2011 to 2015.
One Rock Capital Partners continues to be heavily involved in plastics, even after the Lifoam divestiture. The investment firm, in January, completed the purchase of Constantia Flexibles, which describes itself as the world's third-largest flexible packaging company.
Prefere Resins makes adhesive resins the European market. And Blue Triton is a bottled water company made up of former Nestle Waters North America operations.
The investment firm also owns GDP Companies Inc., a resin distribution company that includes both Nexeo Plastics and Distrupol, both acquired from Univar Solutions.