Page 48 - Plastics News April 2020

Pregis acquires Italian temporary protective APS Elastomers purchases new facility to
films manufacturer change its headquarters

regis has acquired So. Pr. Ad. SRL (Soprad) of Milan, PS Elastomers, a
PItaly, a global provider of temporary protective Al e a d i n g
films. Going forward, Soprad's products will be t h e r m o p l a s t i c
marketed under the Pregis' PolyMask brand and will elastomer supplier
further reinforce its offerings to a growing global since 2009, recently
market. PolyMask products include temporary surface
protection films and specialty films. Pregis President p u r c h a s e d a n e w
facility and is moving
their operations from
Romulus, Michigan to a
larger facility in nearby
Westland, Michigan.
The expansion allows
APS to double the
volume of various thermoplastic elastomers, among
the styrenic-based TPEs, TPVs and TPUs (polyester and
polyether thermoplastic polyurethanes), as well as
create a state-of- the- art product testing laboratory.
“Thanks to our customers' steady volume increase
over the past few years, we decided it was time to
purchase a larger facility in order to handle our
substantial growth”, says Stephane Morin. APS
Elastomers is a full-service warehousing, distribution,
and CEO Kevin Baudhuin said: “Soprad has a 40-year and technical service organization dedicated to
track record of supplying performance-oriented providing TPE, TPV, TPU and other elastomer
adhesive protective films for a variety of surfaces marketers and processors with all their product and
including metal, plastic, glass and carpet. Its robust technical support needs. APS Elastomers is owned and
European customer base provides an ideal foundation operated by two of the industry's leading marketing
from which to expand the availability of our existing
temporary adhesive film products. The acquisition and technical support executives, Roger J. Huarng and
strengthens Pregis' position as a leading global Stephane Morin; working with a series of independent
producer of surface protection films.” Additionally, the technical agents located in cities throughout North
integration of Soprad products means that Pregis America. “The foundation of our success is our ability
PolyMask will now be able to expand its product range to source material globally from our manufacturing
to include solvent-rubber and solvent-acrylic based partners, develop new products and proprietary
product solutions to the global marketplace. These formulas while offering outstanding technical service;
solutions provide immediate market opportunities, ensuring we provide quality elastomers at the most
particularly for the metals and automotive market competitive pricing”, says Mr. Morin. Company
segments. “The acquisition also creates an opportunity offerings include APS Elastomers' private brand of
to share best practices and increase our manufacturing TPEs; Viprene® TPVs, Zythane® TPUs, TPE alloys,
capacity so that we can support future market needs,” compounding series, and custom and standard soft
Baudhuin added. The Soprad acquisition is the first
acquisition under Pregis' new private equity owner, elastomer formulations, as well as Maxelast® TPEs.
Warburg Pincus. This is the latest example of Pregis' With the recent coronavirus affecting major domestic
TPE suppliers, APS Elastomers positioned itself to
continued investment in the European marketplace.
The company also recently announced the opening of provide material desperately needed for health care
Pregis Europe's Customer Experience and Paper and medical applications to the North American
Specialist Centre in Stevenage, UK, as well as a Film market; helping small and medium manufacturers get
and Foam Specialist Centre in Heerlen, the through these difficult periods by significantly
Netherlands. increasing its inventory and managing its supply chain.

APRIL 2020 45 Plastics News