Morgenthaler Purchases Gates Formed-Fibre Products
Non-woven Supplier to Become Platform for Acquisition of Other Fiber Systems Suppliers to Automotive and Non-automotive Markets
CLEVELAND, Aug. 22 -- Morgenthaler Partners, a leading middle market buyout company, announced today that it has acquired Gates Formed-Fibre Products, Inc., from Gates Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tomkins PLC and renamed it Formed Fiber Technologies, Inc. (FFT). Terms of the deal were not disclosed. FFT is the leading supplier of thermoformed, non- woven system solutions to North American automotive OEMs and Tier 1 automotive suppliers.
Morgenthaler, working with FFT's existing management, plans to use the company as a platform to acquire other fiber solution suppliers and build it into the leading, one-stop fiber product and systems supplier to automotive and non-automotive markets. In recent years FFT has enjoyed steady sales growth and has made significant inroads into automotive markets with molded non-woven carpet in car trunks and, more recently, interiors. Non-woven, molded carpet offers automakers a lower cost delivered product and installation.
FFT's customers include Big 3 automakers, as well as major transplants, supplying both directly and indirectly through Tier 1 vendors. "We are excited about being the strategic core of an independent company," says David MacMahon, President and CEO of FFT. "It will enable us to provide more value to our customers."
"We believe the time is ripe to build a significant new fiber products supplier," says Fred Festa, general partner at Morgenthaler. "Automotive customers are searching harder than ever for lower cost solutions delivered by larger suppliers. At the same time, non-automotive markets are also becoming more receptive to low cost fiber solutions. FFT's proprietary thermoforming technology, its ongoing success in working with customers to develop effective system solutions, and its ability to identify and open new markets make it the ideal platform on which to build a major new company. We envision that, in a few years, FFT will become the premier 'one-stop shop' for essential fiber products and systems."
About Formed Fiber Technologies
Formed Fiber Technologies is the leading supplier of thermoformed, non- woven system solutions to North American automotive OEMs and Tier 1 automotive suppliers. Founded in 1979, it employs 600 associates at two state-of-the-art manufacturing plants in Auburn, Maine, and in Sidney, Ohio. Its website can be found at www.formedfiber.com .
About Morgenthaler
Founded in 1968, Morgenthaler is a leading, national private-equity firm with a middle-market, management buyout group based in Cleveland, Ohio, and a venture-capital group based in Menlo Park, California. The firm has funded more than 180 companies over its 34-year history. With its new fund of $850 million raised in July of 2001, Morgenthaler now has a total of $2 billion under management.
The firm's buyout group focuses on management buyouts and leveraged recapitalizations of stand-alone middle-market companies, as well as, divisions or subsidiaries of larger corporations. Morgenthaler has traditionally been strong in partnering with management teams to build industry-leading companies. For more information regarding the firm, visit www.morgenthaler.com .
About Tomkins
Tomkins is a world class global engineering and manufacturing group with market and technical leadership across three businesses: Air Systems Components, Engineered & Construction Products and Industrial & Automotive.
Tomkins ordinary shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TOMK and also trade in ADR form (each equal to four ordinary shares) on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TKS.