Battenfeld Gloucester purchased in management buyout

Gloucester, Mass.-based film machinery equipment manufacturer Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering, has been sold via a management buyout and is now running once again under the brand name Gloucester Engineering Co. Inc.

The transaction closed on October 30, 2007.

According to Battenfeld, the organization was looking for an investor familiar with the polymer web extrusion industry that was committed to grow the business and to expand its leadership in its core film product segments.

The lead investor, Mousam Ventures, is a private equity firm based in Kennebunk, Me. The company has joined forces with eight Gloucester managers to purchase Battenfeld Gloucester from Germany’s SMS. SMS had purchased all the Battenfeld companies in the 1990s, and Battenfeld Gloucester was the last component of that buyout that SMS retained.

Former CEO of Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering, Carl Johnson, has been named president of the new company. John Sharood and Dick Murphy from Mousam Ventures have been appointed as chairman and vice chairman of Gloucester Engineering respectively.

Mousam Ventures have no plan to re-sell the business, said Carl Johnson, President of Gloucester Engineering CO. They are wholly focused on growing Gloucester Engineering [and] Im very confident Gloucester Engineering will rapidly accelerate its film product and service development.