Appointments and Promotions
New CEO and CFO at REHAU
William Christensen is the new CEO of REHAU. Christensen was previously the chief marketing officer and is replacing Rainer Schulz, who has run the company since 2010. With international management experience, Christensen has been with REHAU since April 2016. Prior to joining REHAU, he served on the group executive board of Geberit, where he was responsible for international sales. The new CFO will be Kurt Plattner, taking over the responsibilities of Dieter Gleisberg. Plattner has been with REHAU for 25 years and was recently head of Treasury, Controlling and Finance at REHAU’s head office in Muri, Switzerland.
Polymer Resources Ltd. names president
Scott Anderson is president of Polymer Resources Ltd. He brings to his position more than 25 years of plastics industry experience leading global profit and loss (P&L) functions, commercial teams, strategic pricing, product management, marketing and global commercial operations. He joined Polymer Resources from SABIC, where he was the global director of strategic pricing for the company’s $7 billion Innovative Plastics division.
Brynwood Partners and Harvest Hill Beverage Company make executive appointments
John LeBoutiller will be joining Brynwood Partners as a managing director. LeBoutillier was most recently President and CEO of Harvest Hill Beverage Company, a Brynwood Partners VII L.P. portfolio company that is the owner of the Juicy Juice, SunnyD, and Nutrament brands, among others. Prior to joining Harvest Hill, he held senior management positions at Kraft Foods for 15 years and was at Unilever, where he was president of Unilever Canada.
Succeeding LeBoutillier is Robert Mortati, who will become the president and CEO of Harvest Hill. Mortati was formerly chief marketing officer of Apple & Eve LLC. Prior to that, he held a succession of senior roles in Kraft Foods’ Beverage and Coffee Divisions. Mortati will report to LeBoutillier. He will join the Harvest Hill board of directors and LeBoutillier will remain on the board.
Motion Industries names VP of Marketing
Motion Industries Inc., a distributor of maintenance, repair and operation replacement parts and a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company, promoted Pamela Sims to vice president of marketing, effective Sept. 1. A graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Sims joined Motion Industries in 2004, starting in market research. She most recently served as the company’s director of marketing since 2013.
Acquisitions, mergers, expansions and partnerships
Hometown Food Co. acquires portfolio of brands from J.M. Smucker Co., appoints senior management
Hometown Food Company, a wholly owned portfolio company of Brynwood Partners VII L.P. and Brynwood Partners VIII L.P., acquired a portfolio of brands from The J.M. Smucker Company for approximately $375 million. Hometown Foods will be headquartered in Chicago and will operate its 650,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Toledo, Ohio. The portfolio of acquired brands including exclusive U.S. rights to the Pillsbury branded shelf-stable baking and dessert products and use of the iconic Pillsbury Doughboy in these categories. Also included in the company’s portfolio is the Funfetti, Hungry Jack, White Lily, Jim Dandy and Martha White brands.
Hometown Foods also hired Daniel Butler as its president and CEO. Most recently, Butler was president and CEO of Wilton Brands LLC. Prior to that, Butler worked at Kraft Foods Inc. for 17 years where he held senior level sales, marketing and general management positions. In addition, the company hired Tim Young, David Meltzer and Dan Anglemyer who are joining Hometown Foods as its CFO, EVP of sales and chief marketing officer, respectively. Most recently, Young was with Treehouse Foods Inc., Meltzer was with Richelieu Foods Inc. and Anglemyer was with Back to Nature Foods Company LLC.
The company ultimately expects to employ approximately 50 people in its Chicago-based headquarters.
TE Connectivity and ABB close on ENTRELEC terminal block business
TE Connectivity (TE) and ABB announced that TE closed its previously announced acquisition of ABB’s ENTRELEC terminal block business. ABB’s ENTRELEC terminal block business serves customers in more than 70 countries. The business comprises research and development (R&D), with manufacturing sites in France and Poland. By adding ABB’s ENTRELEC terminal block offering under the product brand ENTRELEC, TE is able to offer a complete system for power, signal and data connectivity with special focus on harsh environments.
Sealed Air acquires AFP Inc.
Sealed Air acquired Austin Foam Plastics Inc. (AFP Inc.), a provider of engineered packaging solutions and will integrate into Sealed Air’s Product Care Division. In the area of specialty foams, Sealed Air has long been a materials supplier, but did not have the fabrication capability required to design and deliver solutions directly to end users. Through the acquisition of AFP, Sealed Air is advancing its capability to work directly with customers to design, fabricate, and deliver custom packaging solutions that eliminate damage, reduce freight shipping cost, maximize labor and resource efficiency, mitigate environmental impact, and enhance consumer experiences.
New clean rooms at NewAge Industries/AdvantaPure headquarters in Southampton, Pennsylvania. Images courtesy of NewAge Industries/AdvantaPure
NewAge Industries/AdvantaPure invests $10M in new clean rooms expansion
NewAge Industries/AdvantaPure are now using new clean rooms to produce platinum-cured silicone tubing, molded components and single-use molded tubing assemblies. The products are manufactured for the biopharm, pharmaceutical and other clean application industries. The ISO Class 7 and 8 clean rooms were built in existing space at the company’s headquarters in Southampton, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia. The manufacturing suites and inspection areas total 23,000 square feet, with another 20,000 square feet renovated for additional warehouse space. NewAge invested $10 million in the project. Engineering, design and construction were performed by AES Clean Technology Inc. of Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania.
Saint-Gobain Seals’ R&D expands Kontich, Belgium manufacturing facility
Saint-Gobain Seals, a global manufacturer of sealing and polymer critical parts in core systems, has invested in expanding the R&D laboratory facilities at their Kontich, Belgium site to support customer testing needs and improve their time-to-market process. These competitive advantages are achieved through a prevalidation process in which mechanical and tribological testing helps select precise fit material for an application with a specific speed and load, specialized test rigs are used to perform testing in simulated end user hardware and endurance testing of seals are conducted in-house. Originally 150 square meters, the laboratory space increased to 390 square meters when it was moved to a new building located within the manufacturing complex at the end of 2017. Although the lab has more than doubled in space, plans are underway to expand further, adding a FabLab and learning center to enhance customer focus in 2019.
ICS opens third-party logistics pharmaceutical distribution center
ICS, which provides distribution services for pharmaceutical manufacturers and a part of AmerisourceBergen, opened its newest third-party logistics (3PL) pharmaceutical distribution center in Ohio. The new facility, which will serve as the flagship location for ICS, will further strengthen the company’s end-to-end, integrated solutions for improving access to specialty medication, optimizing supply chain efficiency and enhancing patient care.
As the largest facility within the ICS network, the new 350,000-square-foot distribution center will feature advanced operations tools and technology, as well as state-of-the-art logistics systems to accommodate products of all sizes, temperatures and storage needs.
Heritage Environmental Services partners with Zinc Nacional to build Waelz Kiln facility in Midwest
Heritage Environmental Services LLC and Zinc Nacional will partner to build a state-of-the-art Waelz Kiln facility in the Midwestern United States. The joint venture company, “Waelz Sustainable Products LLC” (WSP), will service the metals sector by providing a sustainable solution for the growing steel industry. Waelz Kiln technology is a proven process for reclaiming valuable zinc oxide from recycled steel dust, a byproduct of the electric arc furnaces operated in steel mills. Zinc oxide is a widely used ingredient in numerous products such as metallic zinc, rubber, ceramics, lubricants, ointments and more. Three states have been selected for siting the WSP plant and negotiations are in the final stages. It is projected that the facility will break ground in late 2018 and commissioned during the first half of 2020. WSP plans to hire up to 60 employees during the initial phase of production and an additional 30 employees after expansions are complete.
John Soules Foods expands Tyler facility ahead of projected growth
John Soules Foods will be adding an additional production line and upgrading a current production line within its Tyler, Texas facility to support ongoing organic sales growth. The $25 million investment will increase production capacity by 35 million pounds per year. The new production line is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018 and will create 50 new jobs for the Tyler, Texas area.
Key Technology and Heat and Control form strategic partnership
Key Technology Inc., a member of the Duravant family of operating companies, and Heat and Control Pty Ltd. have partnered to support customers in Australia, New Zealand and India. Under the agreement, Key appointed Heat and Control as its exclusive agent to sell and service Key’s high-performance digital sorters, vibratory conveyors and other automation systems in Australia, New Zealand and India, effective immediately.
Alliance between robotic cleaning pioneers, industrial fabrication experts offers turnkey service
Fouling removal specialists Tube Tech International has partnered with ParFab Companies, a global provider of turnaround, general mechanical, fired heater, reformer and fabrication services. Serving the syngas, petrochemical, refining and energy industries, the two companies share the same customer base. The alliance has been formed to broaden their ability to support clients, whether it’s on planned or emergency projects. The announcement follows the launch of Tube Tech International’s base of operations in Houston, Texas.
Awards & Recognitions
CALORIS CONCENTRIX has been awarded a U.S. patent for a compact mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) evaporator system. Image courtesy of CALORIS CONCENTRIX
CALORIS CONCENTRIX MVR Evaporator awarded patent
The CALORIS CONCENTRIX MVR Evaporator has been awarded a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The U.S. Patent No. 10,046,249 was awarded to Artur Zimmer, CTO and co-founder of Caloris Engineering in Easton, Maryland. The patent details a compact mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) evaporator system that delivers the highest available energy and operational efficiencies in a compact evaporator design, with models evaporating up to 100,000 pounds (12,000 gallons per hour) of water per hour at an efficiency of up to 200 pounds (24 gallons) of water evaporated per kilowatt of power consumed (42 watts/gallon). The Concentrix MVR is a high-efficiency falling film evaporator system using proprietary turbofan technology for heating by MVR, driving the evaporation process with electrical power. Falling film evaporation technology means that only a small quantity of product is held inside the Concentrix at any given moment, minimizing the time required for system startup, rinse-out, CIP and shutdown.
Schneider Electric recognizes tech partners with Collaborative Automation Partner Program Awards
Schneider Electric announced its annual Collaborative Automation Partner Program (CAPP) Awards, recognizing technology partners for their key role in implementing and supporting Schneider Electric’s IoT-enabled EcoStruxure solutions. Revealed at Schneider Electric’s recent Global ALLIANCE Partners conference in Cannes, France, winners include BELDEN Hirschmann, ProSoft Technology, ITRIS, COGNEX and ACOEM. The CAPP program includes about 50 selected technology partners and more than 250 selected products that complement Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure offerings to help customers meet complex business and system requirements.
