GRAND RAPIDS — A Grand Rapids-based automotive supplier has acquired Emergent Carbon Wheels, a Kansas City, Kan.-based manufacturer of carbon fiber composite wheels.
Lacks Enterprises Inc., a manufacturer of composite wheel systems, trim and coatings for the automotive industry, completed the deal Sept. 19.
By acquiring the company, Lacks is “broadening its customer base … into a higher area of the (automotive) market — luxury and exotic,” said Michael Suchara, director of marketing for Lacks Enterprise.
Terms of the deal were undisclosed.
“From a technology perspective, it gives us an opportunity to better learn what might be coming (in the auto industry) and have a better understanding in regards to some of these other metals … and carbon fiber materials,” Suchara told MiBiz. “It will enable us to evolve our wheel business.”
According to Suchara, the company timed the acquisition “right” to break into a new and growing market in the automotive industry.
“We don’t manufacture wheels, but what we provide is a highly stylized composite finish on an existing wheel,” he said. “By now dipping our toe in the wheel manufacturing area of wheel development, (it) provides us with a deeper perspective and allows us to leverage our existing technologies on a different level.”
Emergent Founder Colin Snyder will now serve as the technology director for Lacks, which added roughly 10 employees with the deal. Currently, Lacks generates roughly $500 million in injection molding sales and is the 13th largest injection molding company in the United States, according to Plastics News.
“Our success and our growth has always been based on the introduction and willingness to introduce new technologies and new innovations,” Suchara said. “This (investment) fits that principle.”
