Clarcor Inc’s Industrial Air division has bought certain assets and liabilities of MFRI’s TDC Filter Manufacturing Inc, a US manufacturer and supplier of pleated filter bags, dust collection cartridges and gas turbine air filters for approximately US$11 million.
MFRI plans to sell the 100 000 sq ft TDC manufacturing and office facility in Bolingbrook, Illinois.
Christopher Conway, Clarcor’s chairman, president and CEO, said: “The TDC product line is widely recognised and respected in the industrial air filtration space, particularly with OEM customers, and will be a strong complement to our existing BHA business. This, in combination with the operational synergies we expect to achieve as we increase volumes through our Slater facility, makes the acquisition an attractive one for Clarcor Industrial Air and for Clarcor.”
Meanwhile Hengst Holding GmbH has acquired MFRI’s Nordic Air Filtration businesses in Denmark and the United Arab Emirates for approximately US$11 million. Nordic Air Filtration employs around 100 people and has annual sales of more than €15 million.
The acquisition of Nordic Air Filtration is part of the growth strategy of the Münster, Germany-based filtration specialist Hengst.
“Nordic Air Filtration’s entire product portfolio is an excellent complement to our current expertise in the field of industrial filtration. Our goal is to expand our activities in the non-automotive market further and to transfer our competence and technology as a partner in the automotive industry to filtration applications in these related segments,” said Hengst owner Jens Röttgering. “Nordic Air has a very attractive product portfolio and decades of experience in high-quality production of industrial filters – and the acquisition of Nordic Air and its integration into the Hengst Group will offer our customers great added value.”
MFRI has also signed a letter of intent to sell its domestic fabric filter business, based in Winchester, Virginia, to a private company. The deal is expected to close at the end of February 2016.
The move away from filtration is designed to refocus MFRI’s business on a wider variety of specialty piping markets.
MFRI CEO Bradley Mautner said: “The actions we are taking to sell our filtration business and focus all of our resources on the Perma-Pipe brand and its many future opportunities are the result of careful consideration of various strategic alternatives."
The sales follow a competitive bidding process that MFRI initiated as part of its program to optimise its strategic focus and portfolio.