Mason Wells Newsletter 2010 – Volume 4

• Mason Wells Closes 2010 with New Investments
• Premix, Inc. Sale Announced
• Mason Wells Hires Analyst

• Coating Excellence International, LLC
• NEX Performance Films, Inc.
• Oliver-Tolas Healthcare Packaging

As the 2010 year was coming to a close, Mason Wells was busy closing out the year with the investment of two companies. The investments are the first for Mason Wells Buyout Fund III, a $525 million fund that had its final closing in May 2010.

Mason Wells announced an investment in Paragon Development Systems, Inc. (“PDS”), headquartered in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. PDS is a leading Information Technology integrator that provides hardware, software, and services to medium and large healthcare, government, education, and corporate customers that have enterprise-class IT infrastructures.

PDS architects, supplies, implements, and manages IT solutions for its clients. This hardware, infrastructure, and data center solutions enable large enterprises to systematically upgrade and optimize their IT investments.

PDS provides its services across the nation and has additional offices located in Brookfield, Madison, and Wausau, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Overland Park, Kansas; and, Columbus, Ohio.

Mason Wells announced the acquisition of Paris Presents Incorporated, headquartered in Gurnee, Illinois, a leading provider of branded and private label personal care products. Product lines include cosmetic accessories, specialty bath, and body products, travel accessories, nail care supplies, and other health and beauty products. The Company’s EcoTools™ product line is an industry leader in cosmetic and bath accessories and features innovative, earth-friendly materials. The Company’s products are available at retailers globally, including leading mass merchants, drug stores, department stores, and specialty retailers.

Mason Wells, Paris’ management team, and other investors acquired the equity from the founding family owners.

Mason Wells announced that Premix, Inc. of North Kingsville, Ohio, and its wholly-owned subsidiary Quantum Composites, Inc. of Bay City, Michigan, has been acquired by Hadlock Plastics, LLC of Geneva, Ohio. The acquisition was completed on December 30, 2010.

Premix, Inc., a Mason Wells Fund I portfolio company, is the largest North American developer, formulator, and manufacturer of thermoset compounds and custom-molded components. Premix’s subsidiary, Quantum Composites, Inc. specializes in high-performance engineered structural composites.

The acquisition of both Premix and Quantum Composites was a great fit for Hadlock Plastics, an experienced custom molder, and finisher of high-quality engineered composite products. Hadlock will build a new, vertically integrated enterprise and offer customers a full range of engineering and manufacturing processes.

Buddy Erickson recently joined Mason Wells as an Analyst. Prior to joining Mason Wells, Buddy spent two years as a Business Analyst for McKinsey & Co. in their Chicago office where he worked on a number of different strategic growth projects for Fortune 500 companies in the consumer packaged goods, retail, and healthcare industries.

Buddy is a graduate of the University of Illinois where he graduated with the Highest Honors with a B.S. in Enterprise Systems Engineering. At Mason Wells, Buddy will initially be responsible for completing financial analyses and strategic/market assessments on both new business prospects and current portfolio companies.

Coating Excellence International (“CEI”) announced the opening of its third flexible packaging manufacturing facility located in Appleton, Wisconsin.

The addition of this new world-class facility will provide CEI with nearly one million square feet of combined manufacturing space, further expanding its flexible packaging capabilities. The facility will house a state-of-the-art tandem extruder and related high-speed equipment. CEI currently serves flexible packaging customers in a wide variety of food packaging sectors including cheese and condiments, pet foods and treats, specialty consumer, industrial, and agricultural products, lawn and garden, tobacco, and wipes and towelettes markets.

NEX Performance Films, Inc., (“NEX”) has relocated its corporate headquarters from its previous location in Appleton, Wisconsin to its Milton, Wisconsin facility. This move represents one of the final steps in the separation between NEX and its former corporate parent, Appleton Papers. As part of this relocation process, NEX made a significant investment in the Milton facility through the build-out of corporate offices, employee breakrooms, and additional lab space. The Milton facility will also have a new blown film line added to the plant in 2011.

Oliver-Tolas Healthcare Packaging (“Oliver-Tolas”), in partnership with Michigan State University (“MSU”), debuted its new program, the Healthcare Packaging Immersion Experience (“HcPIE”). The event brought together healthcare professionals, medical packaging experts from Oliver-Tolas and MSU’s School of Packaging, as well as educators from MSU’s Learning and Assessment Center, which serves the Colleges of Human Medicine, Nursing, Osteopathic Medicine, and Veterinary Medicine. The event was held at MSU’s Learning and Assessment Center, East Lansing, Michigan.

Introduced as a pilot program, HcPIE focused on how sterile medical packaging is used in the operating room and in the emergency department. Simulated procedures, employing life-like patient simulators, enabled volunteer healthcare practitioners to open packaged medical devices as they would during actual procedures, revealing how packaging can ease or hinder aseptic presentation. Attendees were guided through mock simulations and were joined by professionals in post-event panel discussions regarding packaging concerns.

The event was sponsored by Glenroy Inc., DuPont, Multivac Inc., Constantia Flexibles, and BrandWatch Technologies. The next HcPIE event will be held in October 2011.