U.K. molder Icon Polymer buys ContiTech diaphragm business

RETFORD, England (Sept. 13)—Icon Polymer Group has bought the brake-chamber diaphragm business of ContiTech Holding GmbH for about $1.5 million. The deal takes the British group a step closer to achieving its stated aim of having $70 million in sales by 2005. Icon bought all the assets and the intellectual property rights of the German unit, said Icon Managing Director Richard Gogerty, and will move compression-molding equipment to Retford from ContiTech's Nordheim, Germany, elastomer coatings plant. The deal adds about $1.5 million to Icon's annual $4.6 million sales in these "very safety critical, specialist items," he said.