Atlas Holdings announced Tuesday the sale of Novipax to ACON Investments, LLC, an international private equity firm based in Washington, D.C.
Novipax, the leading producer of absorbent pads in the country, was created by Atlas in 2015 to acquire the North American Foam Trays and Absorbent Pads business of Sealed Air Corporation. In 2016, it acquired Paper Pak Industries, a leader in the higher technology active pads space.
Included in the sale to ACON are Novipax’s absorbent pad manufacturing facilities in Paxinos, Pa., Grenada, Miss., La Verne, Calif., Rockingham, N.C., and its headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill.
“The sale of this market-leading absorbent pads business effectively illustrates a core Atlas investment strategy; acquire complicated assets in a corporate divestiture and then transform the company operationally, financially and culturally via a long-term partnership with a superb management team,” said Sam Astor, Partner of Atlas Holdings.
The trays business, previously part of Novipax, is not included in the transaction and has been rebranded as NPX ONE, which will be headquartered in Reading, Pa. The entity is a top manufacturer of expanded polystyrene foam trays for food processors, supermarkets, and food distributors in the United States.
“NPX ONE is well-positioned to deliver superior service to the food producers who rely on us for their packaging needs, and we’re excited to begin this journey as a standalone business,” said Ron Leach, Chairman and CEO of NPX ONE and former CEO of Novipax. “We also look forward to continuing our relationship with Novipax as a supplier of absorbent pads for the trays we produce at NPX ONE.”