OAKLAND PARK, Fla. (May 2) — An unnamed company in Angola has purchased Tesco of America Inc.'s Trent Rubber specialty tube and envelope manufacturing division, and will make the rubber tubes in Africa.
The escalating cost of raw materials and the allocation of some of them prompted the sale, according to Daniel Zeledon, who is a business partner in Tesco with his father, Claudio Zeledon. By selling the business the firm generated a profit in a short period of time, rather than wait five to 10 years to attain it, he said.
The continued loss of manufacturing in North America is "really a shame," Zeledon said.
The company now will focus on future business expansion such as a larger Fort Lauderdale, Fla., warehouse and new product lines and retread molds. The 250,000-sq.-ft. Trent Rubber plant in Lindsay, Ontario, halted production early this year and soon will be demolished to make room for a neighborhood development, the company said.
Equipment from the Trent plant was transferred and is being refurbished at a new facility in Lindsay, and the status of the operation is uncertain. Zeledon said the firm will retain the facility for the next year and it might become a Tesco distribution center for Canada, or the Angola company might use it, although not for manufacturing.
The Trent Rubber plant that closed employed 375 employees and made specialty tubes, precured envelopes, mold cure tubes, flaps, aircraft tubes, antique tubes and truck tubes.