Movers and Shakers: Honeywell acquires Nextnine; Bunting Magnetics to acquire Global Magnetics

Aug. 29, 2017

Acquisitions, expansions, partnerships, appointments and awards from around the process industries.

Acquisitions, Mergers, Expansions and Partnerships

Honeywell acquires Nextnine

Honeywell completed its acquisition of Nextnine Ltd., a privately held provider of industrial cyber security solutions. Nextnine will be integrated into Honeywell’s Industrial Cyber Security group to strengthen the company’s capability to offer multivendor, multisite secure remote access, monitoring and support to protect industrial control systems and critical infrastructure against a growth threat of cyber attacks.

Bunting Magnetics to acquire Global Magnetics

Bunting Magnetics Co. signed an agreement to acquire Global Magnetics Inc. The Florida-based company sells and distributes magnetic systems and mineral separation equipment designed and built by Master Magnets Ltd. throughout the U.S., Canada, Central America and South America. The acquisition comes just months after Bunting Magnetics Co. acquired Master Magnets Ltd. Bunting’s growth in these markets will be led by new sales team member Rich Evangelista, business development manager for aggregate, mining and minerals. In his new role, Evangelista is responsible for growing the Master Magnets Ltd line of equipment in these markets throughout the Americas.

Spencer Ogden expands US headquarters

Spencer Ogden is moving its headquarters from London, England to Houston, Texas, in response to tremendous growth in the U.S. market since opening an office in Houston in 2011. To make room for its corporate headquarters, Spencer Ogden is tripling the size of its Houston facility – a former nightclub. The move was expected to take place in mid-August.

Trelleborg invests in sealing solutions facility

Trelleborg’s Sealing Solutions business area is investing in a new production facility for sealing solutions in Denmark, and will be relocating its current manufacturing facility in the country. The move will allow Trelleborg to increase sales and strengthen positions in attractive market segments, the company says. The new facility will be located to the current production plant in Helsingør, and is expected to be operational by the beginning of 2020.

FCX Performance completes acquisition of Encova

FCX Performance completed its acquisition of Encova Inc., a licensed professional engineering company that provides specialized project start-up and commissioning services for customers in the life sciences industry. FCX’s reach expands across 45 countries with the addition of Encova.

JBT Corporation acquires PLF

JBT Corporation acquired U.K.-based PLF International Limited. PLF is a specialist manufacturer of filler machines and complete turnkey line project management for the global powder product market. The acquisition will allow JBT to bring PLF fillers to a much wider marketplace as well as meet increasing worldwide demand for powdered products, especially powdered infant formula and nutraceuticals.

Post Capital Partners sells BHS Specialty Chemicals to DuBois Chemicals

Post Capital Partners announced the sale of food safety and water treatment company BHS Specialty Chemicals to DuBois Chemicals, a portfolio company of The Jordan Company L.P. The latter is a developer of specialty chemicals to general manufacturing, pulp and paper making, transportation cleaning and water treatment segments. This is Post Capital’s second exit in just more than six months, following the recapitalization of Invo HealthCare Associates late last year.

Motion Industries acquires Numatic Engineering

Motion Industries Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company, acquired Numatic Engineering. Numatic Engineering has more than 60 years of experience selling and supporting automation components. Motion Industries is an industrial parts distributor of bearings, mechanical power transmission, electrical and industrial automation, hydraulic and industrial hose, hydraulic and pneumatic components, industrial products, safety products and material handling, with annual sales of $4.6 billion.

Motion Industries Inc. has annual sales of $4.6 billion. Image courtesy of Motion Industries Inc.

Yokogawa acquires Norwegian company

Yokogawa Electric Corporation acquired TechInvent2 AS, a Norwegian enterprise that holds the rights to FluidCom, a chemical injection metering valve. FluidCom prevents blockages and corrosion in oil wells, pipelines and other facilities and employs a patented technology for thermal control that incorporates the functions of a mass flowmeter, control valve, and valve controller.

GVS acquires Kuss Filtration

Microfiltration company GVS S.p.A entered into an agreement to acquire Kuss Filtration Inc. from Industrial Opportunity Partners, an operations-focused equity firm. The combination of their respective technical backgrounds, global sales and distribution networks will enable GVS and Kuss to maximize penetration in the automotive, microfiltration markets.

Emergent BioSolutions to acquire anthrax treatment

Gaithersburg, Maryland-based drug maker Emergent BioSolutions acquired GlaxoSmithKline’s Raxibacumab, a medication used to treat inhaled anthrax. The $96 million deal will add to Emergent’s portfolio of countermeasures for infectious diseases and help advance the company’s goal of growing business at its newly expanded Baltimore manufacturing facility. The deal comes with a $130 million federal contract for Raxibacumab.

Element Materials Technology completes acquisition

Testing and product qualification business Element Materials Technology Group acquired Exova, establishing an international private equity firm that will operate as Element Materials Technology. The new Element Group is majority owned by Bridgepoint, an international private equity firm, and will consist of 200 laboratories in more than 30 countries. Exova will continue to operate under its new ownership name. Ian El-Mokadem, the former CEO of Exova, moved from the business to pursue other opportunities while Element’s CEO Charles Noall takes responsibility for the combined company, alongside a new executive team made up of senior management from both companies.

Weir Oil and Gas completes acquisition of KOP Surface Products

Weir Oil & Gas acquired KOP Surface Products. The action, announced in mid-June, reflects Weir’s commitment to global expansion with a significant focus on Asia Pacific. The acquisition has an enterprise value of $114 million. KOP is headquartered in Singapore and has a manufacturing facility in Batam, Indonesia, as well as a network of sales and service offices in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and India.

Appointments

SEEPEX appoints new president and COO

Mark Jones was named president and chief operating officer for SEEPEX Inc. succeeding Mike Dillon as president of the company. Dillon will continue as chief executive officer and a member of the management board of the SEEPEX global group of companies until Jones becomes chief executive in the fourth quarter of 2017. After 2017, Dillon will continue at SEEPEX in engineering and product development roles. Jones was most recently vice president of engineering and marketing at NORD Gear Corporation.

NETZSCH Pumps North America names new VP of OEM

NETZSCH Pumps North America LLC expanded its executive sales force with the hiring Robert LePera as vice president of OEM Sales. In this role, he will provide individual attention with a team that includes sales, service and engineering for the OEM customer. LePera spent most of his professional career in the pump industry. He has served in various roles during a 30-plus year career including national sales manager, marketing manager, vice president of global sales, and commercial director of the Americas leading both domestic and international teams.

Indegy appoints new vice president, Americas

Indegy appointed Gabriela (Gaby) Koren as vice president, Americas. She brings more than 20 years of international experience in enterprise technology sales, business development, alliances management and field marketing to Indegy. Prior to joining Indegy, Koren was executive vice president at Panaya, an Infosys company, where she was responsible for sales and marketing in the Americas.

Calpipe Industries Inc. expands sales team

Calpipe Industries Inc. added new members to its field sales management team. Dennis Perkins was named Eastern regional sales manager; Tara Woodruff was named regional sales manager for the Southeast; Jerome Korthase was named the regional sales manager for the West; and Eric Lund was named national director of sales.

Bunting Magnetics names new chief financial officer

Bunting Magnetics Co. named Bill Wagner as its new chief financial officer. With two decades of experience, Wagner will oversee financial reporting, budgets, accounting and human resources for all Bunting Magnetics divisions, which includes Bunting Magnetics Co.; Bunting’s Magnet Materials Division, including its e-commerce site buymagnets.com; Magnet Applications Inc.; and Bunting Magnetics Europe.

EASA announces new officers, executive committee

International trade organization Electrical Apparatus Service Association (EASA) named new international officers for the 2017-2018 administrative year. The new officers are:

  • Chairman of the board: Lenwood Ireland of Ireland Electric in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
  • Vice-chairman: Gary Byars of Heavy Machines Inc in Memphis, Tennessee,
  • Secretary/treasurer: Brian Larry of Larry Electric Motor Services, Ltd. in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

Left to right: New EASA international officers Gary Byars, Lenwood Ireland and Brian Larry. Image courtesy of EASA

Viega hires new national account manager

Viega LLC named Jordan Mays as its newest national account manager. He will be based in Frisco, Texas. In this role, Mays will be responsible for overseeing sales and relationship management for a select number of Viega’s national accounts. Prior to joining Viega, Mays worked as an account manager at Advanced Drainage Systems.

UNIPOWER names new VP of Operations

UNIPOWER LLC named Philip Haynes as its new vice president of operations to oversee UNIPOWER’s global operations footprint that includes manufacturing and engineering centers in North America, Europe and Asia. In this role Haynes is expected to develop and implement production, purchasing, materials and quality strategies.

Kemutec hires sales engineer

Kemutec Group Inc. hired William (Bill) Ennis as sales engineer. Ennis is a recent mechanical engineering graduate from Philadelphia University.  His responsibilities include providing technical sales support to the Kemutec process equipment sales team along with operating the company’s Technical Testing Center.

KROHNE names new sales manager

KROHNE Inc. hired Jan-Marc Featherston as its new sales manager for INOR Temperature Products. INOR is a wholly owned subsidiary of KROHNE, based in Malmo, Sweden, with its North American distribution center located in Peabody, Maine. Featherston comes to KROHNE with more than 20 years of industry experience. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and will be based out of the Peabody offices.

Seeq hires five new staffers

Seeq Corporation hired five new employees to better serve customers and increasing demand from process manufacturing and industrial internet of things customers. The new hires include Todd Amy as sales executive in Houston, Texas; Jennifer Bentzel as director of marketing in Pennsylvania; Cody Ray Hoeft as software developer in Oregon; Michael Talmadge as analytics engineer in Houston; and Joanna Zinsli as analytics engineer in the Bay Area.

Bacharach Inc. names new regional sales manager

Bacharach Inc. appointed Glenn Smith as regional sales manager for the Northeast U.S. Smith comes to Bacharach with a strong background in regional sales development in instrumentation, systems and services, and served previously as regional sales manager with Dadanco.

Awards and Milestones

ASTM International committee presents Robert J. Painter Award

Shane Collins, director of additive manufacturing programs with CalRAM Inc. in Camarillo, California, received the Robert J. Painter Award from ASTM International committee on additive manufacturing technologies (F42). Collins was recognized for his exceptional service in advancing the cause of voluntary standardization for additive manufacturing technologies and for leadership in developing timely and relevant standards to serve an evolving industry. Collins has been an ASTM International member since 2009, and serves as a guest editor of the Additive Manufacturing Journal.

Comet receives Applied Materials 2017 Supplier of the Year Award

Comet received a 2017 Supplier of the Year Award in Innovation and Collaboration by Applied Materials Inc. The awards were presented at Applied’s annual Executive Supplier Forum, an event highlighting the company’s commitment to build close relationships with suppliers, communicate Applied’s strategic direction and priorities and foster supplier engagement. 

WELTEC BIOPOWER receives ADBA Industry Awards

WELTEC BIOPOWER received the AD & Biogas Industry Award in two categories from the British anaerobic digestion association ADBA at the UK AD & Biogas and World Biogas Expo 2017 in Birmingham, U.K. An independent expert jury nominated the German biogas plant manufacturer in the category "Best international agricultural project" in recognition of its 800-kW plant in Colombia. The award "Best international commercial plant" was given to WELTEC BIOPOWER for its 1-megawatt-plant in Melbourne, Australia.

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