A Buffalo, NY, manufacturer has acquired Vermont-based medical device maker Vermed Inc. Vermed, located in Bellows Falls, manufactures medical devices, electrodes, line care products, electrotherapy devices, urethral catheter support, topical skin adhesives and other similar products. The news was announced today by Citizens Bank, which arranged financing for Graphic Controls to acquire Vermed. Terms were not disclosed, including whether local staffing and operations in Vermont would change.
Graphic Controls is a leading supplier of consumable products for industrial, medical and gaming markets with manufacturing operations and sales offices in the United States, Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom.
A buffalonews.com story says that Graphic Controls is getting back into the medical device business and this acquisition allows them to do that with an established company. It also has acquired two other medical device companies in recent years.
In the Citizens Bank statement, Graphic Controls President/CEO Sam Heleba said. “The Citizens Commercial Banking team was an excellent partner on this transaction. Citizens brings great ideas to the table and is able to execute quickly to help us meet our financial goals.”
According to buffalonews.com, (SEE STORY) Heleba said: “I was born and raised in Vermont very close to Vermed, [so] making this acquisition is quite special to me."
According to Vermont Business Magazine, Vermed employs 85 with annual revenues over $10 million.
According to a VBM story from February 2008, "Vermed was sold to CardioDynamics International Corp for $17.3 million in 2004. Then, almost immediately - and due to circumstances far beyond its control - CardioDynamics began hemorrhaging money. So it put Vermed back on the market to raise capital. Vermed's competitors started sniffing around. The possibility loomed that the company could be sold, stripped of its assets and closed. Eighty-two jobs would be lost. Was its time running out? In a heroic last-ditch move led by CEO Richard L Kalich (now chairman) and supported by the Town of Rockingham, the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) and Citizens National Bank, the 11 managers gathered their savings, re-mortgaged their homes, cashed out their 401Ks, joined together to form Vermont Medical Partners, Inc and bought the company for $8.2 million. The sale was arranged in just two months and completed on September 7, 2007."
Commenting on the transaction in 2007, Rich Kalich, said: "We are very pleased to reach agreement with CardioDynamics for the purchase of Vermed. We have thoroughly enjoyed being part of the CardioDynamics team and believe the close working relationship will continue in the years ahead." CardioDynamics is based in San Diego.
Vermed was founded in 1978.
Graphic Controls, with 600 employees and $120 million in revenues, previously was owned by Tyco, but in 2010 was acquired by Boston-based investment firm WestView Partners, according to buffalonews.com.
“Graphic Controls is a great client with international reach and a superb business operation,” said Jim Gaspo, President of Citizens Bank in New York. “The Citizens Commercial Banking team is pleased to be able to help Graphic Controls’ management team achieve their strategic and financial goals.” Graphic Controls has been a client of Citizens Bank since 2004.
Citizens Commercial Banking is ranked eighth overall US middle market bookrunner by number of deals and sixth for sponsored deals, according to the Thompson Reuters league tables.
Sources: citizensbank.com/commercial. buffalonews.com. Vermont Business Magazine.