Mason Wells Newsletter 2021 – Volume 1

• Mason Wells Announces the Sale of AWT Labels & Packaging
• MGS Mfg. Group Inc. Acquires Formteknik
• Structural Concepts Corporation Announces New Chief Executive Officer
• Plastics News features MGS Mfg. Group Inc.
• Plastics News features Schoeneck Containers, Inc.

Mason Wells recently announced the sale of AWT Labels & Packaging, a Mason Wells Buyout Fund III, LP portfolio company, to Morgan Stanley Capital Partners.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, AWT is a leading provider of labels and flexible packaging solutions focused on healthcare, personal care, and food and beverage end markets. The Company operates through three facilities in the United States and holds a top-three market position in the medical device labels and clinical trials labels segments. Through its innovative product design approach and swift speed to market, AWT helps customers address mission-critical application needs.

“We are very proud of the success that AWT has achieved under our ownership,” said Jay Radtke, Senior Managing Director at Mason Wells. “Since our acquisition in 2015, we successfully executed the value creation plan that we developed together with the management team. We invested in new equipment to increase capacity and position the business for future growth. We also completed the acquisition of Citation Healthcare Labels, a leading provider of pharmaceutical clinical labels, which further expanded the Company’s healthcare labels business and complemented AWT’s existing medical device labels expertise. We would like to sincerely thank Jim Lundquist, Chief Executive Officer, Michelle Zeller, President and Chief Financial Officer, and the entire AWT team for their dedication and hard work during our time together. We wish them all the best as their business transitions to the new private equity owners, Morgan Stanley.”

“Mason Wells has been an outstanding partner for the business and the management team over the last five years,” said Jim Lundquist, Chief Executive Officer of AWT. “We really enjoyed the collaborative relationship with Mason Wells, who provided strategic direction, built a strong Board of Directors, and demonstrated a willingness to invest in the business through facility and equipment investments, as well as a strategic acquisition. We have achieved tremendous growth and operational improvements in partnership with Mason Wells over the past several years, and the future looks bright for AWT.”

For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.awtlabelpack.com.

MGS Mfg. Group Inc., a Mason Wells Buyout Fund IV, LP portfolio company, recently announced the acquisition of Formteknik, a European leader in innovative tooling solutions with operations in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.

MGS, headquartered in Germantown, Wisconsin, is a provider of vertically integrated manufacturing solutions for complex, high-precision plastic components. This acquisition strengthens the Company’s ability to serve as a single source of supply for integrated tooling, molding, and automation capabilities to global customers in the healthcare, automotive, packaging, and consumer industries.

“We are excited to welcome Formteknik to MGS. Culturally, we have tremendous alignment – everything our organizations do revolves around delivering superior solutions for our customers. With Formteknik, MGS can now deliver integrated manufacturing solutions in Europe with a single point of contact, which mirrors our model in North America,” said Paul Manley, President and Chief Executive Officer of MGS.

Formteknik’s management team of Henrik Jørgensen (Denmark), Jan Aronsson (Sweden), and Dirk Paulmann (Germany) issued the following statement: “Our services, from tool development to turnkey injection molding solutions and system validation, perfectly align with MGS’ current global capabilities in mold building, injection molding, and automation. The team at Formteknik is thrilled to become part of the MGS family to bring integrated manufacturing capabilities to customers across Europe.”

The acquisition expands the MGS team to 1,500 employees, with eleven facilities globally. The Company recently announced the two-phased expansion of its Wisconsin-based global headquarters to consolidate its warehousing and distribution operations and expanded its manufacturing footprint. Phase one of the expansion is expected to be completed in the fall of 2021.

For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.mgsmfg.com.

Structural Concepts Corporation, a Mason Wells Buyout Fund IV, LP portfolio company, and manufacturer of temperature-controlled food and beverage display cases for foodservice establishments and supermarkets, recently appointed Joe Mockus as its President and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Mockus brings an extensive range of experience and accomplishments with him. For the last ten years, Mr. Mockus worked for Senior plc, where he served as Vice President and General Manager of the Flexonics division, which fabricated metal components and assemblies serving multiple markets. He was recently promoted to President of the Aerospace Structures Division of Senior plc. Prior to that, Mr. Mockus was President and Chief Operating Officer at Femco Holdings LLC, a provider of machined components and equipment repair services. Mr. Mockus also held roles at Handy & Harman Ltd. as President of a brazing and soldering business and was Director of Business Excellence – Global Operations for Underwriters Laboratories, where he led a global lean initiative across facilities in 26 countries.

Mr. Mockus has a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Michigan Technological University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Mr. Mockus replaces Jerry Bennish, who has been the interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Structural Concepts since August 2020. Mr. Bennish will remain on the Board of Directors of Structural Concepts.

For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.structuralconcepts.com.

The October 2020 issue of Plastics News featured MGS Mfg. Group Inc., a Mason Wells Buyout Fund IV, LP portfolio company, for their efforts in meeting the growing demand for rapid test kits generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

MGS, a global supplier of injection molded plastic components, tooling, and equipment for healthcare, electronics, automotive, and consumer end markets, expanded its cleanroom space in 2019 by building the Healthcare Center of Excellence at the Company’s headquarters in Germantown, Wisconsin. The facility includes a 13,000-square-foot cleanroom, 20 injection molding machines, automated assembly cells, and auxiliary equipment. MGS now has five ISO-certified Class 8 cleanrooms.

The Company did not know at the time how the project would play an essential role in supplying molded plastic components for critical COVID-19 rapid and molecular test kits, or that the expansion would quickly reach capacity and the Company would have to expand again.

In his interview with Plastics News, Paul Manley, President and Chief Executive Officer of MGS stated, “We had just completed an ISO Class 8 cleanroom to start production on those products. Today, that cleanroom is completely full. We have full-scale production on 12 machines, complete with automation, running 24/7.”

In order to meet the initial United States demand for COVID-19 tests, MGS scaled production thirtyfold. That meant building high-cavitation tools, bringing in more multishot molding capacity and quickly getting the work cells qualified, and churning out parts. Now, almost a year later, the expansion is quickly reaching capacity, and MGS will have to expand again.

“We have been positioning MGS for the better part of a decade now to provide solutions to the healthcare industry,” said Mr. Manley. “Having that capability allowed us to really react quickly. It allows us to compress lead times. In this case, we were able to scale production faster than most anyone,” said Mr. Manley to Plastics News.

For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.mgsmfg.com.

The November 2020 issue of Plastics News recently featured Schoeneck Containers, Inc., a Mason Wells Buyout Fund IV, LP portfolio company, for their efforts in meeting the growing demand for disinfectant wipes generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In recent weeks, Schoeneck Containers Inc., a leading manufacturer of plastic packaging products consisting of containers and closures, bought a Kautex large-platform continuous extrusion machine, bringing its stable of blow molding machines to 36, and an Engel 1,200-ton all-electric injection molding machine, its third press.

Headquartered in New Berlin, Wisconsin, SCI is housing the new equipment in its 250,000-square-foot facility in Delavan, Wisconsin, which opened in May 2019, and employs about 40 of the Company’s 250 workers.

In his interview with Plastics News, Tom Frank, President and Chief Executive Officer of SCI said, “We still have open room” at the site, calling the facility as “close to lights-out [operation] as you can get with blow molding.” The facility features a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled white room.

SCI ranked No. 26 in this year’s Plastics News blow molders ranking, is experiencing strong demand in orders for its consumer product containers and closures, particularly those for disinfectant wipes and related products.

SCI also makes rigid packaging for the food and beverage, pet care products, and nutraceuticals industries. The containers range in size from 5 ounces to 2.5 gallons. The Company also does labeling and entered injection molding about three years ago to make closures in order “to deliver the full package to customers,” Mr. Frank said to Plastics News.

The Company processes high-density polyethylene, polypropylene, and some PVC. “We’re looking to enter the PET market as well by the end of next year,” Mr. Frank added.

He also emphasized the Company’s flexibility in product development and design, noting SCI wants to become more involved in providing mid-volume custom packaging options.

SCI also is working on sustainability initiatives. “We’re light-weighting and using PCR (post-consumer resin) in our processing,” Mr. Frank said during his interview.

SCI told Plastics News it plans to expand organically “with a future eye on possible expansion throughout North America, which could come through acquisitions” and other options, he said. “We haven’t been very visible in the industry, but I think that will change. We have a good story to tell; we just need to share it.”

For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.radiuspkg.com.