CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa—Apache Inc. has purchased Pacific Belting Inc. as part of its ongoing growth initiative aimed at increasing the company's reach.
Based in Portland, Ore., the acquired company is a fabricator and distributor of heavy duty conveyor belts used in the oil and gas, aggregate, construction, recycling and other industries. The firm supplies its finished belts to other distributors and original equipment manufacturers.
Terms of the transaction, which closed Dec. 31, were not disclosed.
Pacific Belting will continue to operate out of Portland, but it will move to a larger plant within the next year, according to Tom Pientok, president and CEO of Apache.
“That will put us in a facility that will allow us to expand and add industrial and other hose, along with light duty conveyor belting,” he said. Pacific Belting's present plant spans about 20,000 square feet, and the firm would like a structure a little larger than that.
Pacific Belting will continue to be guided by its present management team, headed by President Ken Crain, who Pientok said is known and respected for his knowledge and expertise in the industry. Crain is one of the pioneers of the hot-bonded vulcanization technique frequently used in sidewall belt construction, according to Apache.
Jason Crain will remain with the company as general manager of West Coast operations, the company said.
“I was extremely proud of the business that we built, and I want that to continue,” Ken Crain said. “As I explored the possible scenarios, it was apparent that Apache's vision, culture and strategy were well aligned with where we need to be for our customers.”
Pientok said that each step Apache has taken on its growth path over the last few years has been geared toward getting its customers what they need in reduced lead time.
Over that period, the Cedar Rapids-based company “has made very intentional, targeted moves to continually improve the level of support we provide our customers,” he said.
Most recently, it added a facility in Dallas in August and shortly before that completed construction of a 90,000-sq.-ft. addition at its sprawling Cedar Rapids plant. It made several acquisitions of small distributors, fabricators and a product manufacturer in the last few years.
In addition to the Portland site, Apache currently has facilities in Cincinnati; Dallas; St. Louis; Des Moines, Iowa; and a seals manufacturing plant in Hillsboro, Ore.
On its latest purchase, Pientok said “Pacific Belting offers some unique capabilities to complement Apache's existing expertise and provides us with the location we needed on the West Coast.”
Strategically, he noted, the latest purchase is a huge plus for the company. When it set out to grow both organically and via acquisitions several years ago, he said the firm knew it needed a base north of the Rockies, up and down the West Coast and into Canada.
Purchasing Pacific Belting creates that presence, he said. “If you plot our locations, we're much more balanced throughout the U.S., and the acquisition puts us in a much better position to serve our customers.
“We're growing despite the economic headwinds of today in oil and gas, agriculture, mining and other markets. We're willing to expand during down times. When things improve we'll have the needed capacity to serve our customers.”