Spartech, a portfolio company of Nautic Partners, has acquired Tufpak. Nautic acquired Spartech, a manufacturer of acrylics and extruded plastics, in October 2019 from Arsenal Capital Partners.
Tufpak is a manufacturer of custom and stock engineered plastic films used in biohazard, medical devices and biopharma packaging applications. The company is best known for its autoclave bags and pouches that are used for biohazardous waste containment, transportation and disposal. Autoclave bags are used in high heat sterilization to prevent low-temperature plastics inside the bag from adhering to the walls of the sterilizer or otherwise interfere with the sterilizer equipment.
Other Tufpak products include medical device packaging, biopharmaceutical sampling bags, dust covers for medical devices and appliances, specialty military packaging, closure bags and specimen bags. Tufpak was founded in 1976 and is headquartered 110 miles north of Boston in Ossipee, New Hampshire.
“Tufpak was acquired by our father almost 29 years ago when the company was a commodity bag maker, but with my brothers, we expanded the company vision to become a manufacturer of functional products serving the more attractive technical market,” said Tufpak owner Mike Wadlinger. “By developing a proprietary film-making capability, we have been able to produce complex bag and film structures that satisfy the demanding requirements of multiple markets, most notably the regulated autoclave biohazard bag products used in clinical healthcare markets.”
Spartech’s acrylic products, plastic sheet and rollstock, specialty film laminates, and thermoformed packaging products are used by more than 1,000 customers in a range of applications in the aerospace, defense, healthcare, industrial, automotive, consumer goods, and packaging sectors. Spartech, led by CEO John Inks, operates 14 US-based facilities and is headquartered near St. Louis in Maryland Heights, Missouri.
“This acquisition expands our product line to include medical and biohazard plastic film capabilities with industry-leading packaging for biological, chemical, pharmaceutical and laboratory research applications,” said Mr. Inks. “We have always admired Tufpak’s focus on innovative plastic film development and are proud to welcome them to the Spartech team.”
“Spartech’s management team is one of the best I have worked with and it is very impressive what they have accomplished to transform the business in a short time,” said Chris Pierce, a managing director of Nautic. “The Tufpak acquisition is consistent with our strategy to increase Spartech’s healthcare business and add new capabilities and high margin products to the portfolio. With the Wadlingers’ continued involvement in Tufpak and the Spartech leadership team’s experience integrating acquisitions, we are confident that this will be a successful partnership.”
Nautic is a middle-market private equity firm that makes majority equity investments of $25 million to $250 million in companies that are active in the healthcare, industrial products, and outsourced services sectors. In March 2019, the Providence, Rhode Island-based firm held a final closing of Nautic Partners IX LP at its hard cap with $1.5 billion of limited partner commitments.
© 2020 Private Equity Professional | December 8, 2020
