Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • European Rubber Journal
  • Plastics News
web
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • ITEC
    • Automotive
    • Tire
    • Non-Tire
    • Suppliers
    • Silicone
    • Latex
    • Coronavirus
    • Executive Action
    • Government/Legal
    • Opinion
    • Technical Notebooks
    • International Elastomer Show
    • Women in Tire & Rubber
    • HEXPOL Sponsored Content
    • Goodyear recognized by Lockheed Martin as 'elite supplier'
      EV tire advancements to help secure future
      Lambillotte: Only question on AVs is timing
      CAR official says EV future brighter than autonomous
    • Goodyear-branded transmission belts set to return
      Hot topics at virtual CES: AVs, air taxis and drones
      Apollo to raise prices of Vredestein brand tires
      China's tire production up in 2020
    • Greenergy, Haldor Topsoe tech turns tires to fuel
      India decides against extending carbon black duties
      GRI expanding ag tire capacity at 3-year-old Sri Lanka plant
      Apollo to raise prices of Vredestein brand tires
    • NewAge Industries celebrates 15 years of employee ownership
      India decides against extending carbon black duties
      WCCO task force navigates pandemic, expands communications
      JobsOhio funding gives Sperry & Rice room to grow
    • Safic-Alcan and Arkema working together on distribution deal
      India decides against extending carbon black duties
      Biesterfeld to supply Denka acrylate rubbers
      Ace Products & Consulting partners with Wallace Instruments
    • Ace Products & Consulting partners with Wallace Instruments
      Safic-Alcan extends distribution agreement with Momentive
      Momentive aims to grow silicone presence in Asia-Pacific region
      IRP Medical solidifies portfolio with KDL deal
    • WCCO task force navigates pandemic, expands communications
      ASTM cancels April meetings as COVID-19 continues impact
      Paycheck Protection Program funding reopens Jan. 15
      Detroit Auto Show canceled; alternative event being planned for September
    • ARP Materials adds technical sales manager
      Jack Murphy joins Akron Dispersions
      Adriano Alfani named Versalis CEO
      Maroon Group adds to Southeast sales team
    • India decides against extending carbon black duties
      Hot topics at virtual CES: AVs, air taxis and drones
      Paycheck Protection Program funding reopens Jan. 15
      Taiwan tire makers propose settlement of import duties case
    • Column: Pandemic looms over everything in life, business in 2020
      Column: Lessons from the 2020 Best Places to Work
      Editorial: Silicone hit hard by pandemic, expected to bounce back
      Column: Still far way from normal
    • Effects of multiple repurposed materials for reinforcements of standard rubber compounds
      Impact of peroxide blends on the cure rate and aged properties in HNBR
      Techniques to detect long chain branching in polymers
      A comparative study looking at effects of curing kinetics and batch variation on SBR injection molding and numerical analytics
    • Rubber Division seeks abstracts for 200th Technical Meeting
      WORD panelists say evolution, authenticity keys to success
      IEC keynote: Communication key to logistics
      IEC speaker: Specialized elastomers may reduce spread of life-threatening pathogens
    • WORD panelists say evolution, authenticity keys to success
      New video celebrates women in rubber industry
      ITEC panelists say women can thrive in tire industry
      Rubber Division planning second Women of Rubber event
    • Sponsored By HEXPOL Compounding
      Faster Access to Your Polymer Compounding Experts Around the World
      Sponsored By HEXPOL Compounding
      Take a walk thru a HEXPOL Lab
      Sponsored By HEXPOL Compounding
      HEXPOL offers a unique selection of High Performance Elastomers to match your application requirements
      Sponsored By HEXPOL Compounding
      It’s what you can’t see that makes the Difference at HEXPOL
  • Blogs
    • Products
    • Wacky World of Rubber
    • New Products: MonTech introduces 1,500 kN lab press
      New products: 3M introduces new durable, pliable medical adhesive
      New Products: Lanxess launches energy-efficient PU elastomer
      New Products: MonTech automates bale cutter for safety, productivity
    • Wacky World of Rubber: How Trelleborg, teens sealed a spot in the world record book
      Wacky World of Rubber: Of chicken and feet, but not chicken feet
      Wacky World of Rubber: Time to go mattress shopping
      Wacky World of Rubber: Because nothing says football like 'frunk' shrimp
  • Newsletters
    • Rubber in Automotive
    • Silicone News
    • Latex News
    • Sign Up for Newsletters
    • Goodyear-branded transmission belts set to return
      Hot topics at virtual CES: AVs, air taxis and drones
      Apollo to raise prices of Vredestein brand tires
      China's tire production up in 2020
    • Ace Products & Consulting partners with Wallace Instruments
      Safic-Alcan extends distribution agreement with Momentive
      Momentive aims to grow silicone presence in Asia-Pacific region
      IRP Medical solidifies portfolio with KDL deal
    • Jack Murphy joins Akron Dispersions
      Synthomer optimistic, raises earnings forecast
      Top Glove reopens COVID-hit factories with enhanced precautions
      Malaysia electronics group to enter rubber gloves sector
  • Multimedia
    • Videos
    • Photo Galleries
  • Directory
  • Resources
    • Classifieds & Mold Mart
    • Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Sponsored By HB Chemical
      The Company Behind the Inventory
      Sponsored By French Oil Mill Machinery
      Process Improvement, Cost Reduction with Custom Press Systems
    • Sponsored By Uncountable Inc.
      Cooper Standard deploys lab informatics platform to synchronize R&D
      Sponsored By Elkem
      LSR Select™: A solution to improve your financial impact in molding applications
      Sponsored By HEXPOL Compounding
      Peroxide Cureable Silicone Injection Molding
      Sponsored By HEXPOL Compounding
      Understanding and Selecting Performance Additives for Rubber Compounding
  • Data
  • Events
    • RPN Events
    • RPN Livestreams/Webinars
    • Industry Events
    • Past Events
    • ITEC Library
    • International Silicone Conference Library
    • 2021 Healthcare Elastomers Virtual Edition
      2021 Rubber in Automotive Virtual Edition
      2020 International Silicone Conference Virtual Edition
      2020 ITEC Virtual Edition
  • Advertise
  • DIGITAL EDITION
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
February 08, 2016 01:00 AM

Flexan's Fitzgerald focuses on expanding customer base

Chris Sweeney
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Flexan Medical Holdings Inc.
    Jim Fitzgerald, Flexan CEO

    CHICAGO—After a busy 2015 where Flexan Corp. got both a new owner and a new leader, the firm has set the foundation to reach new heights.

    After Linden Capital Partners L.L.C., a private equity firm with a focus on the health care industry, acquired Flexan in early 2015, Jim Fitzgerald was appointed CEO in June. He replaced Scott Severson, who chose to retire and remains a member of the firm's board.

    Fitzgerald began his career with Baxter Healthcare in 1991, serving as a sales associate. While the firm transitioned into Allegiance Healthcare and then Cardinal Health, Fitzgerald moved into management positions during his 16 years there. He became the CEO of silicone medical goods producer Vesta Inc. in 2008, spending five years helping RoundTable Healthcare Partners take the firm from a single-platform organization to an international platform.

    Lubrizol Corp. purchased Vesta in August of 2014.

    The good news for Flexan is that Fitzgerald intends to bring that same approach. The better news for him is that the firm already has a head start. Flexan has been present in China for more than a decade and recently completed an expansion that added 55,000 square feet to its operation. Its primary facility in China consists of a 35,000-sq.-ft. facility with about 225 employees. Fitzgerald said Flexan will manufacture more than 100 million units out of its Chinese facility in 2016.

    “We have some really good fundamental strengths in quality and engineering, and we have some really good understanding of raw materials,” he said. “The first thing that we're going to look to do is to grow our market share by expanding into either some additional customers or some adjacent segments that would also benefit from the work that we're currently doing. I think that we've been a little bit narrow in our approach as an organization that was sort of gradually improving. So we're going to look to accelerate our focus, get out and sell our approach to some new customers.”

    With Flexan, Fitzgerald will be exposed to some new industries. The firm has two rubber product manufacturing units—the FMI side focusing on making silicone components for the medical device market, and the Flexan side for industrial applications. Based in Chicago, its 65,000-sq.-ft. operation houses the industrial business while FMI is located at a 20,000-sq.-ft. facility nearby. The company employs about 275 in its Chicago operations.

    Bruce Cohen remains president of Flexan while Frank Sullivan continues to run FMI.

    Flexan has both industrial and medical capabilities in China as the 35,000-sq.-ft. building is complete with a clean room. Fitzgerald said the firm is beginning to add capacity to its new building. He said the company has seen an expanded interest in liquid silicone molding in China for some of the components that historically have been using high consistency rubber.

    “It's a huge advantage,” Fitzgerald said of the Chinese operation, “not only the fact that we're there, but the length of time that we've been there. We have an established team with a general manager who has run the operation for more than a decade.

    “That's been a big driver in our ability to be successful—when you have evidence of your ability that you're going to do what you're going to say you'll do and you can showcase that with work that's actually being done gives your current and prospective customers a greater degree of confidence.”

    Targeting new capabilities

    With Flexan settled in to its new ownership and Fitzgerald in place, the firm is ready to target additional capabilities. Fitzgerald said the firm intends to find new opportunities that complement the work it already does, increasing its value as a supplier.

    “We don't want to stray too far from what we know has made us good, but there are a lot of other capabilities that we think will fold nicely into that and our customers have asked us to explore in the past,” he said. “Whether that's by starting them up on our own or through a merger/acquisition strategy, I think this year you'll see us be able to bring some other capabilities to market.”

    Fitzgerald said Flexan currently doesn't have extrusion capability and does very limited assembly work. But he stressed that the firm intends to stay within the polymer space.

    The executive said the strength of FMI is tight tolerance precision molding, and it has developed a reputation for producing long-term implant components.

    Most of the operation is focused on molding silicone components that go into devices such as pacemakers or defibrillators.

    “We spend a lot more time around the rigor of process development, capability studies and partnership with our customers,” Fitzgerald said. “We're making a relatively inexpensive component that goes into an expensive device.”

    Quality is another strength of the firm.

    “We've been able to build stock-to-stock programs with many of our customers,” he said. “They don't have to re-inspect the product after we ship it. We're meeting such a high quality standard, doing a final quality inspection at our location, shipping to them, and it's going directly to the next step in their manufacturing process without requiring additional inspection.”

    Eyes on Europe

    Fitzgerald said Flexan has a strong European customer base that continues to grow. The medical device space has a lot of growth opportunities, the executive said, as many major original equipment manufacturers have moved some of their product development strategies to European-based regions.

    The firm has been able to support them with domestic representation to this point, but Fitzgerald said he expects more European-based opportunities to present themselves. Part of the firm's long-term strategy is to have a more pronounced presence in Europe.

    “Based on the trends that we see in the medical device space and the prominence of Europe in the medical device world going forward, we have clearly not only not ruled it out but kept it on our radar as a strong possibility for future investment,” he said.

    Having Linden as its owner certainly should help. Fitzgerald said the equity firm intends to support Flexan's growth potential with necessary investments. So far the company has made some internal upgrades, but Fitzgerald stressed that Linden isn't just bringing capital to the table; the private equity parent has a deep network of contacts in the medical industry that Flexan can draw from.

    Linden focuses exclusively on the health care and life science industries, investing in middle market platforms that specialize in medical products, specialty distribution, pharmaceutical and services segments of the health care industry.

    “Their investment model is to get a positive return on their investment,” Fitzgerald said. “But it's growth with a clear mindset on creating value that will be appreciated by some partner at whatever point in time it makes sense for Linden to exit. They have a long-term mindset. They're not asking us to do anything erratic just to hit an annual result, but instead they want to build a valuable business.”

    Related Articles
    Flexan expands China manufacturing operation
    Flexan donates bikes for the holidays
    FMI launches new quality program
    Flexan to acquire Medron
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Rubber & Plastics News wants to hear from its readers. If you want to express your opinion on a story or issue, email your letter to Editor Bruce Meyer at [email protected].

    SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Rubber & Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe Today

    Subscribe to Rubber & Plastics News to get the best coverage and leading insights in the industry.

    SUBSCRIBE
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter

    MISSION

    To serve companies in the global rubber product industry by delivering news, industry insights, opinions and technical information.

    web
    Contact Us

    2291 Riverfront Pkwy, Suite 1000
    Cuyahoga Falls,
    OH 44221

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1726

    Resources
    • About Us
    • Digital Edition
    • Contact the Staff
    • Advertise
    • Order Reprints
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    • Terms of Service
    • Careers
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Partner Sites
    • Tire Business
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Plastics News
    • Plastics News China
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Automotive News
    • Crain Brands
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • ITEC
      • Automotive
      • Tire
      • Non-Tire
      • Suppliers
      • Silicone
      • Latex
      • Coronavirus
      • Executive Action
      • Government/Legal
      • Opinion
      • Technical Notebooks
      • International Elastomer Show
      • Women in Tire & Rubber
      • HEXPOL Sponsored Content
    • Blogs
      • Products
      • Wacky World of Rubber
    • Newsletters
      • Rubber in Automotive
      • Silicone News
      • Latex News
      • Sign Up for Newsletters
    • Multimedia
      • Videos
      • Photo Galleries
    • Directory
    • Resources
      • Classifieds & Mold Mart
      • Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
    • Data
    • Events
      • RPN Events
      • RPN Livestreams/Webinars
      • Industry Events
      • Past Events
      • ITEC Library
      • International Silicone Conference Library
    • Advertise
    • DIGITAL EDITION