Preferred Compounding acquires mixing business in Mexico

qiangzi

Friday, July 13, 2012

% g4 d' y/ `4 r7 ]" U( m' zBarberton, OH - Preferred Compounding announced it purchased JevsaMex, the Mexican compounding operation of Iacp Jevsa of Barcelona, Spain. The 66,000 square-foot facility is in the city of San Luis Potosi in central Mexico. The plant is continuing to operate and JevsaMex’s former customers in Mexico are now being served by Preferred Compounding de Mexico. “For several years we have been hearing from our US-based customers that they want us to fill their needs for high-quality custom compounds in Mexico,” said Preferred Compounding chief executive officer Ken Bloom. “The central location of this established mixing operation between Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey provides an excellent platform for doing so.” The San Luis Potosí plant will be managed by Scott Lieberman, a rubber compounding industry veteran with experience working in Mexico. Lieberman will be working over the next few months to ensure the facility is in line with Preferred’ s operational, quality and performance standards. “Expanding into Mexico is a natural growth step for us,” said Bloom. “Over the past five years we’ve worked hard to improve every dimension of how we serve our customers with consistent quality custom compounds. Thanks to them, we’ve grown significantly as a result. We’re looking forward to integrating the San Luis Potosi facility into our capabilities.” “We are currently making compounds in the plant and we are looking to expand business in Mexico at a steady rate,” said Lieberman, whose new titles are general manager, Preferred Compounding de Mexico, and vice president of strategic initiatives for Preferred Compounding. “The acquisition gives us an operating mixing facility and a trained work force in the heart of Mexico’s industrial area,” said Lieberman. “As in the US, we will be a full-service, high quality and high value-added custom compounder for companies using rubber and elastomers in Mexico.” Preferred expanded through acquisition in 2006 when it purchased Associated Rubber Company of Georgia. That transaction included compounding plants in Tallapoosa, Georgia, Fruithurst, Alabama and Huntingdon, Tennessee. All three continue to be vital parts of Preferred’s operations. The focus since 2006 has been sales growth by delivering consistent quality custom compounds and value-added services for customers, Bloom said. After weathering the 2009 recession, the company has been adding new customers and increasing sales. Lieberman is a mechanical engineer with more than a decade in the rubber industry, including five years of experience in Mexico. He has also worked internationally for German automotive suppliers Freudenberg-NOK and The Schaeffler Group and in the US for Ford Motor Company.