plastic film

Wellspring Closes Buy of Paragon Films

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Wellspring Capital Management has completed its acquisition of Paragon Films, a maker of stretch films used in storage and transit applications, from Wind Point Partners.

Paragon is a manufacturer of cast stretch films that are used to unitize pallet loads while in storage and transit. The company sells its products in all 50 states, as well as Canada, Mexico, South America and several other international locations.

Paragon operates three manufacturing facilities: Broken Arrow, OK (opened at founding in 1988); Taylorsville, NC (opened in 2005); and Union Gap, WA (opened in 2013). The company, led by CEO Darin Tang, was founded in 1988 and is headquartered southeast of Tulsa in Broken Arrow, OK (www.paragonfilms.com).

“Our partnership with Paragon represents an exciting opportunity to build on Wellspring’s track record in the packaging space,” said John Morningstar, a managing partner at Wellspring who leads the firm’s investment effort in the packaging sector. “The company has an impressive reputation as one of North America’s premier stretch film manufacturers by offering customers a superior product coupled with tangible cost savings. We are very excited to partner with the management team, led by Darin Tang, to support Paragon through its next phase of growth.”

Wind Point, in partnership with Mr. Tang, acquired Paragon Films from its founder Mike Baab in December 2016. During Wind Point’s term of ownership, Paragon invested over $10 million in capital for capacity expansion, and revenue and earnings grew at double-digit rates.

The market for stretch film is experiencing significant growth driven by transportation and e-commerce trends that are increasing points of distribution and warehousing. “There are strong tailwinds in the high-performance stretch film industry and Paragon is exceptionally well positioned to capitalize on these trends,” said Matthew Harrison, a partner at Wellspring.  “We look forward to partnering with the Paragon team to pursue a range of growth opportunities, including internal initiatives and select acquisitions.”

Wellspring invests in companies with $20 million to $100 million of EBITDA and $100 million to $1 billion of enterprise value. Sectors of interest include general industrial, business services, healthcare services, packaging, distribution, consumer, and restaurants. In January 2018, Wellspring closed its latest fund, Wellspring Capital Partners VI LP, at its hard cap of $1.4 billion. Wellspring was founded in 1995 and is based in New York (www.wellspringcapital.com).

Wind Point invests from $50 million to $100 million in companies with EBITDAs of at least $10 million. Industries of interest include business services, consumer products and industrial products. In June 2017, Wind Point held a final closing of its eighth fund, Wind Point Partners VIII LP, with $985 million of capital commitments. The fund exceeded its initial hard cap of $750 million and marks the largest fund closing in Wind Point’s history. The firm was founded in 1984 and is based in Chicago (www.wppartners.com).

Rothschild & Co. (www.rothschildandco.com) was the financial advisor to Paragon.

© 2019 Private Equity Professional | April 4, 2019

Wind Point Sells Paragon to Wellspring

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Wind Point Partners has agreed to sell Paragon Films, a maker of stretch films used in storage and transit applications, to Wellspring Capital Management.

Paragon is a manufacturer of cast stretch films that are used to unitize pallet loads while in storage and transit. The company sells its products in all 50 states, as well as Canada, Mexico, South America and a number of other international locations.

Paragon operates three manufacturing facilities: Broken Arrow, OK (opened at founding in 1988); Taylorsville, NC (opened in 2005); and Union Gap, WA (opened in 2013). The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered southeast of Tulsa in Broken Arrow, OK (www.paragonfilms.com).

Wind Point, in partnership with industry executive Darin Tang, acquired Paragon Films from its founder Mike Baab in December 2016. During Wind Point’s term of ownership, Paragon invested over $10 million in capital for capacity expansion, and revenue and earnings grew at double-digit rates. According to Wind Point, the market for stretch film is experiencing significant growth driven by transportation and e-commerce trends that are increasing points of distribution and warehousing.

“Paragon is a case study in Wind Point’s investment strategy of assisting family-owned companies to affect a successful leadership transition and unlock additional areas for equity value creation,” said Alex Washington, a managing director at Wind Point. “We thank Darin and the management team for their partnership in delivering an outstanding outcome.”

“I want to thank Wind Point and our board for their tremendous support over the last two-plus years,” said Mr. Tang. “The Paragon team has delivered strong results over this time period and are proud of our successes. We very much look forward to continuing our momentum with our new Wellspring partnership.”

Wellspring invests in companies with $20 million to $100 million of EBITDA and $100 million to $1 billion of enterprise value. Sectors of interest include general industrial, business services, healthcare services, packaging, distribution, consumer, and restaurants. In January 2018, Wellspring closed its latest fund, Wellspring Capital Partners VI LP, at its hard cap of $1.4 billion. Wellspring was founded in 1995 and is based in New York (www.wellspringcapital.com).

“We look forward to building upon the success that Wind Point and the company have achieved and are particularly excited to do so with the team that is currently in place. Darin and his team have built an excellent culture at Paragon that fits very well with our approach,” said John Morningstar, a managing partner at Wellspring.

Wind Point invests from $50 million to $100 million in companies with EBITDAs of at least $10 million. Industries of interest include business services, consumer products and industrial products. In June 2017, Wind Point held a final closing of its eighth fund, Wind Point Partners VIII LP, with $985 million of capital commitments. The fund exceeded its initial hard cap of $750 million and marks the largest fund closing in Wind Point’s history. The firm was founded in 1984 and is based in Chicago (www.wppartners.com).

Antares (www.antares.com), NXT Capital (www.nxtcapital.com), Newstone Capital (www.newstone.com), and Blackrock Kelso (www.blackrockbkcc.com) will provide financing for this transaction which is expected to close by the end of April 2019.

Rothschild & Co. and Robert W. Baird were the financial advisors to Paragon.

© 2019 Private Equity Professional | March 6, 2019

Wind Point Buys Plastic Film Maker

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Wind Point Partners has acquired Paragon Films, a maker of stretch films used in storage and transit applications.

According to Wind Point, Paragon is a market leading manufacturer of high performance cast stretch films that are used to unitize loads while in storage and transit. The company sells its products in all 50 states, as well as Canada, Mexico, South America and a number of other international locations. Paragon operates three manufacturing facilities: Broken Arrow, OK (opened at founding in 1988); Taylorsville, NC (opened in 2005); and Union Gap, WA (opened in 2013). The company was founded in 1988 by Mike Baab who will remain a significant investor and a member of the board under Wind Point ownership. Paragon is headquartered southeast of Tulsa in Broken Arrow (www.paragonfilms.com).

“Wind Point is the perfect fit with Paragon’s culture and core values,” said Mr. Baab. “This partnership will provide Paragon with the opportunity to pursue tremendous growth and will benefit our customers and employees which was my most important goal as I begin to transition into retirement.  I am thankful that Wind Point will allow Paragon to continue its vision and goals.”

As part of the transaction, Wind Point is partnering with Stan Bikulege, who will serve as Paragon’s non-executive Chairman, and Darin Tang, who will join Paragon as CEO.

Mr. Bikulege is a Wind Point advisor and the current Chairman and CEO of Novolex, a manufacturer of flexible paper and plastic packaging products.  Wind Point invested in Hilex Poly (Novolex’s predecessor) in 2012 and under Mr. Bikulege’s leadership the company grew from $500 million to over $2 billion in revenue.  In November 2016, Wind Point agreed to sell Novolex to The Carlyle Group.

Mr. Tang was most recently Senior Vice President of Strategic Packaging Solutions ($2.8 billion in revenue) at Veritiv, an Atlanta-based paper and packaging distributor that was formed in 2014 through the merger of International Paper’s XpedX and Unisource Worldwide. Prior to Veritiv, he was President of Unisource Worldwide’s Packaging Solutions Group ($1.3 billion in revenue) and oversaw over 650 employees across multiple countries.

“We are excited to acquire Paragon and invest in the next phase of its growth,” said Alex Washington, a Managing Director at Wind Point. “Mike Baab has built a phenomenal company with best-in-class technical leadership.  Wind Point has a proven strategy of working with family-owned companies to navigate leadership transition.  With Stan and Darin’s complementary experience and track records for creating value in the packaging and industrial film markets, we look forward to continued success.”

Wind Point invests from $20 million to $70 million of equity in companies with revenues from $100 million to $500 million and EBITDAs of at least $8 million. Industries of interest include business services, consumer products, healthcare and industrial products. Wind Point is an active investor in the packaging industry having recently acquired Burrows Paper (expected to close by year end), Heritage Bag (2016), Wisconsin Film & Bag (2015), Duro Bag (2014), and Packaging Dynamics (2014).

Financing for the transaction was provided by NewStar Financial, Antares, BMO Capital Markets, BlackRock Capital, and Northwestern Mutual Capital.  KPMG provided transaction advisory services to Wind Point on the transaction. Blaige & Company served as financial advisor to Paragon.

Wind Point Partners was founded in 1984 and is based in Chicago (www.wppartners.com).

© 2016 Private Equity Professional | December 15, 2016

Huron Sells Plastic Film Biz to Pamplona

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Huron Capital Partners has sold its portfolio company Bloomer Holdings to Charter NEX Films, a portfolio company of Pamplona Capital.

Bloomer (DBA Optimum Plastics) is a producer of engineered films for use in high performance industrial, medical and consumer end-markets. In October 2014, Bloomer acquired Optimum Plastics, a producer of high barrier coextruded blown plastic films.  The company’s products are engineered for specific customer needs and support a variety of material blends, colors, sizes, gauges and emboss patterns. Bloomer uses polyethylene, polypropylene and nylon to make films with a thickness of 0.75 to 40 mil (a mil is a thousandth of an inch), embossed thicknesses to 70 mil and widths from 1.5 to 88 inches. Bloomer and Optimum have facilities near Minneapolis in Bloomer, WI  (www.bloomerplastics.com) and near Columbus in Delaware, OH (www.optimumplastics.com).

Huron Capital acquired Bloomer in June 2012 and during its term of ownership revenue increased both organically and from add-on acquisitions from $45 million to over $100 million and the number of employees grew from 66 to 145.  The add-on acquisition of Optimum Plastics doubled the revenues of Bloomer and was the largest driver of revenue growth.

“With both cast embossed and blown film capabilities, we believe we have built Optimum into a major player in the custom films marketplace,” said Kevin Keneally, CEO.  “Huron Capital has been very supportive of our organic and acquisition-related growth initiatives. The firm supported significant investments in technology, capacity and business development resources, and they shared the management team’s vision of building a technically advanced, custom manufacturer with diverse product offerings.”

Huron Capital Partners invests up to $70 million per transaction in middle market companies that have revenues up to $200 million and EBITDAs of $5 million or more. Sectors of interest include specialty manufacturing, business services, consumer goods & services, and healthcare.  The firm was founded in 1999 and currently manages over $1.1 billion in committed equity through four private equity funds. Huron Capital Partners has offices in Detroit and Toronto (www.huroncapital.com).

Charter NEX – the buyer of Bloomer – supplies flexible packaging converters with an array of products, from monolayer to high barrier films, that are used in the retail food, consumer products, industrial, and medical markets. The company was acquired by Pamplona Capital in February 2015. Charter NEX has three facilities in Wisconsin and one in Massachusetts and is headquartered south of Madison in Milton, WI (www.charternex.com).

Pamplona Capital makes private equity, fund of hedge funds and single manager hedge fund investments.  The firm is currently investing Pamplona Capital Partners IV LP, a €3 billion fund raised in 2014. Pamplona was founded in 2005 and is based in London and New York (www.pamplonafunds.com).

Charter NEX financed the acquisition through a combination of cash on hand and credit facilities arranged by Guggenheim Corporate Funding (www.guggenheimpartners.com). Charter NEX was advised in the transaction by Houlihan Lokey Capital (www.hl.com) with Hogan Lovells (www.hoganlovells.com) acting as legal counsel. Optimum Plastics was advised in the transaction by Mesirow Financial (www.mesirowfinancial.com) with Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn (www.honigman.com) acting as legal counsel.

© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 12-4-15

Wind Point Acquires Argotec

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Wind Point Partners has acquired Argotec, a manufacturer of specialty polyurethane film and sheets. Senior debt for the acquisition was provided by GE Antares Capital and Ares Capital Corporation.

Argotec is a manufacturer of specialty polyurethane film and sheet with used in a variety of niche applications, including surface protection and impact resistant glass. In addition to flat-die, cast-on-carrier and blown-film-extrusion technologies, Argotec has expertise in extrusion coating, multi-layer constructions and closed-cell polyurethane foam sheet extrusion. The company is based in Greenfield, MA (www.argotec.com).

Wind Point partnered with Guy Broadbent, who will join as the company as CEO, on this transaction. Mr. Broadbent has 27 years of experience in the plastics, specialty chemicals, technical, and manufacturing industries, most recently serving as CEO of Xcellerex, an early stage bio-manufacturing platform backed by Kleiner Perkins. Prior to Xcellerex, he was president of the $1.8 billion Laboratory Products Group at ThermoFisher Scientific.

Current Argotec executives Bruce Wilby and Nick Filler will continue in senior leadership roles with the business. “Argotec is a solid business that has performed well under Bruce and Nick’s leadership. Argotec provides a unique product with an intense focus on quality, and we believe that Guy Broadbent can leverage these key strengths to continue Argotec’s growth,” said Paul Peterson, a managing director at Wind Point.

Wind Point Partners invests from $20 million to $70 million of equity in companies with revenues from $100 million to $500 million and EBITDAs of at least $8 million. Industries of interest include business services, consumer products, healthcare and industrial products. The firm has approximately $2.5 billion in capital under management and has completed more than 90 investments and 161 add-on acquisitions across its seven private equity funds. Wind Point Partners is based in Chicago (www.wppartners.com).

© 2013 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 6-2-13