Mason Wells Newsletter 2013 – Volume 1
Newsletter
January 1 2013
- Acquisition of A&R Logistics, Inc.
- NEX Performance Films Acquires Charter Films
- Oliver Products Company
- Coating Excellence International, LLC
- Paragon Development Systems, Inc.
Mason Wells recently announced the acquisition of A&R Logistics, Inc. A&R, headquartered in Morris, Illinois, is a leading provider of dry bulk transportation, packaging, distribution, and logistics solutions to numerous multinational companies within the chemical, plastics, and dry bulk food industries. A&R provides a comprehensive suite of services including over-the-road transportation, transloading, packaging, warehousing, and end-to-end outsourced transportation management through a nationwide network of 25 facilities, a combination of Company-owned equipment and owner-operators, and a non-asset-based transportation management division.
Joining Mason Wells in the acquisition are industry executives and investors Mark Holden and Rich Mitchell (the “Industry Executives”). Mason Wells, the Industry Executives, members of the existing A&R management team, and other investors acquired the Company from private equity firm FdG Associates.
Together, Mason Wells and the Industry Executives will work with A&R’s existing management team to build upon the Company’s leading market position in the dry bulk transportation and logistics industry. “We are excited about the opportunity to work with Mason Wells, Mark Holden, and Rich Mitchell,” said Jeff O’Connor, President & CEO of A&R Logistics, Inc. “The industry resources Mark and Rich bring with them, coupled with the strong financial support of Mason Wells will enable us to continue serving our customers at a very high level while expanding our leading market position in the chemical, plastics, and bulk food industries.”
“We are very excited about partnering with the A&R team,” said Mark Holden. “We view the investment in A&R as the first step in our long-term goal of building a diversified, global transportation and logistics company focused on bulk materials.”
On December 21, 2012, NEX Performance Films, a Mason Wells Buyout Fund II portfolio company, completed a merger with Charter Films, located in Superior, Wisconsin. The combined company will operate under the name of Charter NEX Films, Inc. Leadership for the Company will be comprised of members of each Company’s management team.
The opportunity for the merger arose from the strong synergy between NEX and Charter Films. “With NEX, we have found the right company to partner with. Both companies have worked hard to establish themselves as high-quality film manufacturers who pride themselves on being responsive to our customers,” said Charter NEX Films President & COO, Chris Trapp.
“By joining forces, Charter NEX will be able to create greater efficiencies and new growth opportunities, while still providing our customers with the same world-class solutions and services they have come to expect. Our partnership with Mason Wells started in 2010, and this transaction is a huge step forward in our goal of creating the industry leader in blown converter films,” said Kathy Bolhous, Charter NEX’s CEO.
Charter NEX Films, will continue to produce monolayer, coextruded, and barrier films for a wide variety of high-performance film applications. For more information on the merger, please visit www.cnginc.com.
The M&A Advisor named the sale of Oliver Products Company as the winner of its “2012 Deal of the Year Award” (between $250 and $500 million). Winners were announced at the 11th Annual M&A Advisor Awards Gala on December 11, 2012, in New York. Oliver was one of the winners selected from 423 nominees, representing over 600 companies. An independent judging committee of M&A advisors determined and recognized the leading transactions, firms, and individuals.
Mason Wells acquired Oliver Products in 2007. Mesirow Financial was retained to represent the Company in the sale, and the transaction was completed in April 2012.
In October 2012, Paragon Development Systems, Inc., headquartered in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, announced that the Company achieved Cisco Gold Certified Partner Status. To earn Gold Certification, PDS had to meet rigorous standards set forth by Cisco in networking competency, service, support, and customer satisfaction.
PDS is a leading technology integrator for data center and end-user computing solutions. The Company provides hardware, software, and services to medium and large organizations in the healthcare, government/education, corporate, and professional sectors. As a Cisco Gold Certified Partner, PDS has met the requirements for attaining the broadest range of expertise across multiple technologies by achieving Cisco advanced specializations in unified communications, routing and switching, security, and wireless LAN. In addition, PDS has integrated Cisco Lifestyle Services into its offerings and is required to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.
Cisco Gold Certification provides PDS with access to comprehensive sales, technical and lifecycle services training and support from Cisco.
For more information on PDS, please visit www.pdsit.net.
Coating Excellence International, LLC, announced new additions to the Company’s executive leadership team.
“I am extremely pleased to have Julie Piton, Jeff Tritapoe, Lorna Hay, and George Landes on board at cei,” said President & CEO, Mike Nowak. Each of them brings an abundance of experience, knowledge, and demonstrated success in the flexible packaging industry. These additions complement the existing leadership team, and will be instrumental in our continued growth and leadership in the flexible packaging industry.”
To learn more about the recent additions at cei, please visit www.coatingexcellence.com.