Teknor Apex sells assets to Petlon Polymers

Material supplier Teknor Apex Company has sold its Beetle product brand, certain manufacturing assets, and related customer lists to UK-based Petlon Polymers Ltd.

The terms of the deal – which will be finalized by the end of September – have not been disclosed.

The sale follows a fire on April 29 that devastated a Teknor Apex compounding facility at Oldbury, UK which produced engineering thermoplastics (ETPs) and thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs).

“While Teknor Apex is well positioned to supply nylon and TPEs in Europe and throughout the world, we determined that we could not serve some ETP accounts at a level of service that their business required,” said William J. Murray, president of Teknor Apex. “The accounts that we are relinquishing represent a small portion of our worldwide nylon business and include some engineering-grade PET business as well as nylon.”

Teknor Apex will continue to produce nylon compounds in the U.S. and Singapore under the Chemlon brand and supply them worldwide.

“Long-term our plan is to manufacture styrenic TPEs and Chemlon brand nylon in our own facility in Europe,” Murray said. “We will continue to manufacture TPV compounds at a facility in Genk, Belgium and distribute our styrenic TPE materials from that same location.”

The Teknor Apex sales office in Geleen, The Netherlands, continues to be the hub of support for the TPE business in the region.