Caplugs buys Safeplast, relocates U.S. site to New York

Buffalo, N.Y.-based Caplugs Inc. acquired Tampere, Finland-based Safeplast Oy to expand its capabilities in hose protection.

It has also moved a manufacturing operation, Safeplast USA LLC, that had opened in 2018 in Liberty, S.C., to its headquarters site in New York.

Founded in 1948, Caplugs manufactures caps, plugs, tubing, containers, edge liners, fasteners and netting for the medical, automotive, electronics, aviation and hydraulics markets from polyethylene, vinyl, silicone, rubber and more.

A division of Protective Industries Inc., Caplugs has 12 manufacturing plants that produce nearly 5.5 billion units annually. In addition to Buffalo and Tampere, it has sites in Erie, Pa.; Houston; Rancho Dominguez, Calif.; Toronto; Brisbane, Australia; Oss, Netherlands; Meslin l'Eveque, Belgium; Falciano, San Marino; and Jintan, China.

The Safeplast deal gives Caplugs a broader selection of standard products, a full range of specialty wrap products and complementary products from a single source, according to Caplugs CEO David Williams.

The Safeplast product line includes high density polyethylene spirals, nylon wraps and polypropylene strips with Velcro straps to bundle hoses and protect them from sunlight, heat and abrasions for applications, such as forestry, construction and offshore drilling.

"Adding Safeplast allows us to give our customers even more options for hose protection," Williams said in a news release. "Safeplast spiral wrap uses a different cut direction, meaning that no matter a customer's preference, we have the right option available. We can also now offer more customization, including new color and cut-to-length options, giving customers the widest range of options and flexibility in their choice of hose protection."

Customers will have access to Safeplast's line of hose protection and Caplugs' catalog line of products, which offers more than 40,000 parts and custom molding capabilities, including the Pig's Tail brand.

The Pig's Tail line includes spiral wraps and protective products, such as anti-abrasion sleeves and service plugs, for hydraulic and pneumatic connections, including special versions that offer fire resistance, anti-static benefits and photoluminescence for low-light settings.

"Safeplast's offerings are a great complement to Caplugs' line of Pig's Tail products, allowing us to best serve our customers," Williams said. "This acquisition allows us to provide a comprehensive range of the highest quality parts on the market, as well as expert solutions."

Terms of the Safeplast Oy deal weren't disclosed.

Safeplast USA, which was part of Essex, Canada-based Safeplast NA, had been operating out of 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at Pickens County Commerce Park in South Carolina since 2018. When the site opened, it was expected to create 30 jobs.

The acquisition follows Caplug's establishment of a Canadian headquarters in June in Brampton, Ontario, near Toronto at a former facility of Caps'n Plugs, which Caplugs acquired in 2019. Caps'n Plugs had been a Caplugs distributor. The site stocks inventory and is staffed by product designers focused on injection molding, rubber molding, vinyl dip molding, die-cutting, extrusion and vinyl coating.

Caplugs' manufacturing sites produce some 15 million parts a day on 300 molding machines, according to a flier about the new Canadian headquarters.

Two months later, in August, Caplugs began in-country stocking of its most popular parts in Monterrey, Mexico, to enable faster delivery to customers there.