Red Diamond Capital, Industry Veteran and Management Acquire Allied Extruders, Inc.
--Platform Company Now Seeking Add–on Acquisitions in Flexible Packaging Industry--
NEW YORK (September 8, 2004) – Red Diamond Capital, a private equity firm based in New York, announced today its recent acquisition of Allied Extruders, Inc., a leading regional extruder of polyethylene film based in Long Island City, New York. Plastic packaging industry veteran Robert R. Isen and Menash Oratz, an existing Allied executive, participated with Red Diamond in the acquisition as investors and will play key roles in the future management of the company.
Red Diamond appointed Isen, formerly a senior executive at Bemis Corporation and Paramount Packaging Corporation, as the new CEO of Allied Extruders upon the closing of the firm's investment in the company. Isen joined Allied as an investor through Red Diamond's CEOwners® Program. Menash Oratz reinvested a portion of his proceeds from the sale of the company and has been named Allied's Chief Operating Officer.
Allied bolstered its management with two related moves. Don Williams, one of Robert Isen's former colleagues at Bemis, joined Allied Extruders at the closing as Allied's new Chief Financial Officer. In addition, Mendel Rosenfeld, a longtime key operating executive at Allied, was promoted to the position of Vice President, Procurement and Logistics.
Founded as a family business in 1969, Allied processes over 30 million pounds of plastic resin annually. The company produces monolayer and co-extruded polyethylene films in a variety of different thicknesses, widths, strengths, colors and clarity levels. Allied Extruders manufactures films to meet customers' needs for a wide range of applications, including laminated films and packaging for food, apparel, retail and other markets. The company competes effectively against much larger extruders by focusing on short runs of high quality, custom-produced film with rapid delivery requirements.
"The involvement of Robert Isen is an example of the opportunities created by Red Diamond's CEOwners® Program," noted Mark L. Kammert, a managing director at Red Diamond. "Robert's strong day-to-day management skills will help Allied's executive team improve the company's operating and financial performance. At the same time, Robert will spearhead strategic initiatives to build the company through an aggressive sales and marketing campaign and selective acquisitions."
Red Diamond and Allied have begun searching actively for add-on acquisitions. "Allied Extruders is a terrific platform for growth in the flexible packaging industry," stated Robert Isen. "Strategic acquisitions of other regional film extruders and related businesses can help us create meaningful value through synergies in purchasing, manufacturing, sales and marketing and working capital management. We expect to build Allied into a leading film and flexible packaging company within the next several years."
About Red Diamond Capital
Formed in 2002, Red Diamond Capital is an independent $150 million private equity fund that invests in middle market distribution, manufacturing and service businesses in North America. With its committed capital provided primarily by Mitsubishi International Corporation, the U.S. subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, Japan's leading trading company, Red Diamond offers a unique mix of strategic resources, industry-focused capital and management expertise to fuel the growth of its portfolio companies.
Through its CEOwners® Program, Red Diamond creates partnerships with experienced CEOs who have proven leadership capabilities and an entrepreneurial desire to achieve a meaningful ownership stake in the businesses they operate. As part of the program, Red Diamond works to acquire businesses that fit the skills and experience of each CEOwners® Program executive. Following the acquisition, Red Diamond's CEO partner assumes day-to-day responsibility for the management of the business. The CEOwners® Program brings strong leadership and additional capital resources to companies where operating improvement opportunities have not been fully realized, or which lack an internal successor to a retiring founder.
"Red Diamond has now completed three platform acquisitions this year," stated Bret Russell, Red Diamond's chief executive officer. "Each of these investments drew upon our fund's ability to provide strategic direction for management through Red Diamond's CEOwners® Program, as well to tap Mitsubishi Corporation's global resources."
