Acquisitions, Expansions & Partnerships
Kemutec expands into Latin America
Kemutec, part of the Schenck Process Group, will expand into Latin America with a new office in Monterey, Mexico.
The decision will allow Kemutec to be closer to its growing customer base in South and Central America, where it will focus predominantly on food, confectionery, starches, spices and flavors, as well as pet food and the fine chemical sector. From its facilities in Monterey, Kemutec will primarily serve customers in Mexico, Columbia, Chile and Peru.
The announcement follows the appointment of Oscar Rodriguez as sales manager. He will lead Kemutec into its next stage of international growth in Latin America.
Private equity firm acquires Marion Process Solutions
Private equity firm May River Capital acquired Marion Process, which manufactures industrial mixers and blenders, as well as microwave vacuum drying systems, for customers in the food, nutraceutical, mineral, plastic, chemical and biomass industries.
Marion will continue operations under its current name, and Marion’s CEO, Lee Eilers, will continue to head the leadership team.
May River Capital is a Chicago-based private equity firm focused on investing in lower middle-market industrial growth companies. Marion represents the first acquisition by May River in its objective of forming a new global materials processing solutions and services platform.
Transom Capital Group Acquires SemiTorr Group Inc.
Private equity firm Transom Capital Group acquired SemiTorr Group Inc., a distributor of high purity products, from Riverlake Partners.
SemiTorr is a distributor of high purity gas and fluid handling systems and components supporting the microelectronics, sanitary and industrial markets. SemiTorr’s products include process equipment, tubing, hoses, fittings, valves, filtration and instrumentation.
Vee Bee Filtration announces new technology center
Vee Bee Filtration, which designs, manufactures and supplies strainers, filters and pressure vessels, announced it will move to new premises as part of a multimillion dollar investment strategy from its parent company Signum Technology.
The Vee Bee Technology Centre will be in Halesowen in the West Midlands U.K. and will provide design and assembly facilities.
REHAU acquires MB Barter & Trading AG
REHAU Verwaltungszentrale AG acquired MB Barter & Trading AG (MBT).
REHAU Verwaltungszentrale AG is the holding company of the REHAU Group, a leading systems and service provider for polymer-based solutions in the construction, automotive and industrial sectors with more than 20,000 employees worldwide. MB Barter & Trading AG (MBT) is a Swiss, globally operating, family-owned company for commodity polymers, PET and rubber.
The unique combination of REHAU’s expertise in materials, process engineering and applications combined with MBT’s global trading, logistics and distribution expertise creates new opportunities through expanded business models, according to company officials.
Diversified Plastics acquires injection molding company PPIM
Diversified Plastics Inc. (DPI) acquired the assets of Pacific Plastics Injection Molding, which offers custom plastic-injection molding as well as design and custom mold making services to industrial, electronics, telecommunications, medical and filtration markets.
Employee-owned DPI is a custom plastic-injection molder and digital manufacturer of high-precision, close-tolerance parts and components for medical device, filtration, aerospace and other industrial markets.
Awards, Milestones and Certifications
Rockwell Automation recognized for IoT contributions
IoT Breakthrough announced Rockwell Automation, a company dedicated to industrial automation and information, as winner of the "Overall IoT Company the Year" award in the global 2019 IoT Breakthrough Awards program.
IoT Breakthrough is an independent organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global Internet of Things (IoT) market.
The mission of the awards program is to recognize innovators from around the globe in IoT categories like connected homes, home automation, industrial, smart city technology and connected cars. This year’s program attracted more than 3,500 nominations from companies all over the world.
Corteva Agriscience wins manufacturing safety award
Corteva Agriscience, the agriculture division of DowDuPont, has won a 2018 Manufacturing Safety Excellence Award for its approach to industrial safety. The award, from Rockwell Automation, honors industrial companies that make safety a core business value and realize the widespread benefits of holistic safety.
Corteva Agriscience is in the process of rolling out a transformative safety initiative that aims to reduce safety risks and improve productivity across its global operations. The initiative is currently being piloted in a small number of plants and will eventually be expanded to the company’s more than 70 seed production sites worldwide.
Corteva Agriscience’s compliance efforts include working with its OEM vendors to ensure machine-safety risk assessments are performed during the design phase. Also, as the company implements its safety initiative and sees results, it will incorporate key findings into its corporate safety standards to drive improvement throughout the organization.
ZYFRA named Entrepreneurial Company of the Year in AI-based solutions
Frost & Sullivan has awarded ZYFRA as the Entrepreneurial Company of the Year in AI-based machine data monitoring solutions for process industries.
The company operates in Finland, China, Russia, Bulgaria and India, and its platform connects more than 7,000 CNC machines across the countries. By the end of 2018 more than 200 production facilities were equipped with its products.
