Coffin company acquires K-Tron

The boards of directors of both companies unanimously approved the merger agreement. The directors and officers of K-Tron, holding approximately 10% of K-Tron's outstanding common stock in the aggregate, have agreed to vote their shares in favor of the transaction. K-Tron has seven manufacturing facilities: five in the U.S. and one each in Switzerland and China.

The transaction is expected to close near the end of March 2010 for what will be about 10.3 times K-Tron’s EBITDA. Kevin Bowen, who will be president of K-Tron's Process Group, and Donald Melchiorre, who will be president of K-Tron's Size Reduction Group, will continue to manage their respective businesses and report directly to Kenneth Camp, Hillenbrand's president and CEO. Edward Cloues II, K-Tron's chairman and CEO, will be appointed to the Hillenbrand board when the merger is completed. K-Tron's headquarters will remain in Pitman, New Jersey.

In a slight understatement, Hillenbrand’s Camp allowed that K-Tron’s products are quite different from Batesville Caskets’, but said, “We are both manufacturing companies that share similar processes and core operational values.” In slides presented in a conference call to investors, he indicated that K-Tron had “limited lean experience,” referring to lean manufacturing, and predicted that “meaningful improvement opportunities exist through the application of lean business practices.” But he also highlighted K-Tron’s experienced management team, its positive financial standing, and its international footprint as strong points.

At last June’s NPE tradeshow, K-Tron highlighted its ActiFlow unit, an alternative to mechanical hopper agitators with secondary motors and gearboxes as well as the need for flexible sidewall agitation devices. ActiFlow, said K-Tron, prevents bridging and rat-holing of cohesive bulk materials in stainless steel hoppers. It is a non-product contact device, made up of a patent-pending vibratory drive and control. A self-tuning algorithm control adjusts the frequency and amplitude of ActiFlow to maintain flow within the hopper to prevent bridging before it occurs. The device is bolted to the outside of the hopper, above the feed screws. —Matt Defosse