California private equity firm has acquired Ozark’s Simclar Interconnect Technologies Inc. plant in a three-property deal of Simclar Inc. assets.
Los Angeles-based Balmoral Funds LLC is rebranding the 90,000-square-foot Ozark plant to Concurrent Manufacturing Solutions LLC and its 32 employees will continue to assemble electronics for the telecommunications industry, according to plant General Manager Bill Stanfill. The acquisition also included Simclar plants in Hialeah, Fla., and Matamoros, Mexico, a Balmoral Funds news release said.
Stanfill said there are no planned staff changes in the acquisition.
Balmoral Funds, which specializes in recapitalizing small- and middle-market companies, typically invests $5 million to $20 million for a period of two to five years in companies under financial distress, seeking an operational turnaround or that are undervalued in the market, according to BalmoralFunds.com. With more than $100 million of assets under management, Balmoral plans to invest in capital equipment, facility improvements, process improvements and working capital at the Concurrent Manufacturing plants, the release said.
The Ozark plant, 1624 W. Jackson St., was formerly occupied by motor products manufacturer Fasco. Simclar moved its Springfield operations and its roughly 110 employees – which had operated under Northrup Grumman Electronic Systems – to the former Fasco plant in Ozark in 2007. Scottish company Simclar Group Ltd. bought Northrup Grumman’s Springfield plant in 2006.
“Our business has shrunk due to continued movement of product off-shore,” Stanfill said of the steady shedding of jobs at the plant during recent years. “With this acquisition, we’re looking to get new equipment and technologies so that we can compete as a domestic supplier.”
In the deal, Stanfill said Balmoral signed a five-year lease for an undisclosed amount with landowner Phil Wiland of Wiland Direct. He said Balmoral executives would like to vertically integrate the former Concurrent companies by securing contract manufacturing projects that utilize the sheet metal made at the Mexico plant and the electronic cabling produced in Florida.
“It all works together,” said Stanfill, whose worked 36 years for the company, which is going through its fourth name change – from Litton to Northrup to Simclar and now Concurrent. “We’re hoping to get better synergy between the three plants.”
A Balmoral spokesman could not be reached for comment by deadline.
