Minnesota Rubber and Plastics: Pawling 'a very good fit'

MINNEAPOLIS—Minnesota Rubber and Plastics (MRP) is acquiring Pawling Engineered Products, a New York-based maker of custom elastomeric inflatable seal and extruded products.

Pawling, headquartered in its namesake city, produces highly engineered elastomer products such as inflatable seals and clamps, custom compression seals, gaskets, tubing, extrusion and other elastomeric fabrications, MRP said.

"This is a 75-year-old company that puts a major focus on material science and then highly specialized custom elastomer solutions for mission critical applications. That basically fits perfectly into the types of businesses we wanted to be participating in," Dave Furlong, global vice president of sales and marketing for MRP, said in an interview. "From that standpoint, it was a very good fit."

He pointed to both aerospace and nuclear as examples of two markets Pawling serves that require precision products that cannot fail.

"We're thrilled to add Pawling, a company with a 75-year history of supplying unique, highly specialized elastomer solutions for mission-critical applications, to our family, and believe their dedication to superior in-house product design and custom materials formulation is highly complementary to MRP's capabilities," MRP CEO Jay Ward said in a statement.

"Innovation is at the heart of what we do, and this acquisition comes at an important time in our company's history, as we're set to expand and invest in technologies that drive highly differentiated value for our customers," he said.

Pawling President Craig Busby will continue to lead that portion of the company.

"The potential synergies between the two companies are endless, and will allow us to become a better partner for all our stakeholders. We are ready to take this next step," he said in a statement.

Ward said the companies' cultures "align perfectly" and recognize employee engagement and innovation.

"We're not just acquiring great products and intellectual property; we're adding a great team. We plan to extend ownership participation to all the new colleagues we welcome with Pawling," he said.

Pawling has been in business since 1946 and includes the Pneuma-Seal brand of inflatable seal, clamp and actuator line of products. Other products include custom elastomer and plastic products, silicone tubing and the Cepure brand of septa and closure liners for the laboratory segment.

MRP is based in Minneapolis. The company is involved in material compound development as well as engineering, design and manufacturing of custom elastomeric and thermoplastic components and assemblies.

MRP sees an opportunity not only to expand its product portfolio through the deal, but also to adopt rubber processing technology not used by the firm in the past, Furlong said.

"Minnesota Rubber and Plastics is very interested in continuing to enhance our overall product offering to our customers. We also are looking for interesting ways to grow, whether that's organically or inorganically (through acquisitions)," he said.

Pawling primarily uses extrusion to make its elastomer parts, while MRP historically has used injection, compression and transfer molding, Furlong said.

"Adding the extrusion capabilities opens additional doors to additional product sets and solutions. Certain types of product cannot be injection molded or compression molded effectively not only from a performance standpoint but also a cost perspective," he said. "Adding that additional capability expands our market even further."

The companies' customer bases did not overlap prior to the acquisition, so MRP sees an opportunity to sell new products from both sides of the combined business to the other's respective markets.

"This is a product line enhancement, another tool in our tool kit as we go to market as an elastomer leader in the spaces we play in today," Furlong said.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The vice president said Pawling has about 150 employees working in a 50,000-sq.-ft. facility. MRP, prior to the purchase, had about 1,200 employees. There are no plans to make changes to the employment ranks, but Furlong said the company does expect to save some money through the increased buying power of the combined operations.

MRP adds Pawling to its existing locations in Litchfield, Minn.; Mason City, Iowa; River Falls, Wis.; Reynosa, Mexico; Jiangsu, China; and Pacy-sur-Eure, France.