Hexpol leads market as North America's largest custom mixer

Aug 20, 2023

You don't need an industry survey to pinpoint North America's largest custom mixer.

Hexpol A.B., simply, leads the market.

Rubber News' second annual Custom Mixers Ranking is now available in our Data Store, along with our listing, published earlier this year, and a bundle containing both.

In returning Rubber News' survey, the Malmo, Sweden-based company indicated it has North American custom mixing sales in the $500 million to $999 million range. It is the only company on our ranking to indicate sales that high.

As a public company, Hexpol's place in the market is a little clearer, thanks to the full-year 2022 financial report. Hexpol Compounding recorded $1.17 billion in sales for the Americas, but it did not break down sales in North America, specifically.

Globally, Hexpol reported sales of higher than $1 billion on the Rubber News survey it returned, but its global presence is greater than that. Hexpol's full-year financial report shows total global sales of more than $2.2 billion for 2022, with a vast majority of that coming from its compounding operations—about $2 billion in all.

Hexpol's 2022 sales also marked a significant improvement over 2021, when global sales came in at around $1.87 billion.

Hexpol may stand alone in North America with sales over $500 million, but there are at least four companies that fall into the second-highest range.

AirBoss of America Corp., American Phoenix Inc., Chem Technologies Ltd. and Dyna-Mix Inc. all reported 2022 North American sales between $100 million and $499 million. American Phoenix was included in the ranking for the first time this year.

Two companies fell into the $50 million to $99 million sales range. Both were newcomers to the list and, one could argue, the industry overall.

The annual Rubber News ranking of custom mixers and its subsequent industry data is determined through a survey and is organized by Rubber News Researcher Robin Clark. Companies are encouraged to complete and return the survey to offer insights into North American sales and capacity, facility locations and capital investments. Think your company should be included in the rankings or any associated components? Contact Robin at [email protected] for more information.

British American Rubber Co. L.L.C.—better known as Barco—set up shop just about six years ago, and in that time has established itself as one of the larger custom mixers in North America, falling into the third-highest sales range on our ranking.

Barco began with just 20 employees in 2017, and today has 125 working over three shifts at its 172,000-sq.-ft. facility in Tallapoosa, Ga.

Quanex Custom Mixing also makes its debut on our 2022 ranking, and it does so with sales in the $50 million to $99 million range. Quanex in November acquired Cambridge, Ohio-based LMI Custom Mixing for $92 million. Quanex's financial reporting for this ranking represents the LMI sales from 2022.

What stands out most in the ranking, though, is the value of the mid-size and small custom mixers with operations across the continent. Half of the companies responding to surveys this year indicated 2022 sales below $20 million. Just three companies have sales between $20 million and $49 million.

This year's data set includes self-reporting from six companies that did not provide survey information last year—QPoly L.L.C., Quimica del Oeste S.A., Rainbow Master Mixing L.L.C., Infinity Rubber Technology Group Inc., Chemioncs/Protech Group and Barco. With their data on hand, we have a little bit broader and clearer understanding of the industry.

When you examine the North American market through the lens of capacity, Hexpol stands alone there, too. It's the only company to indicate North American custom mixing capacity at more than 1 billion pounds.

Hexpol, this year, noted that it has 1.4 billion pounds of capacity throughout its North American operations—an increase of about 150 million pounds over last year's 1.25 billion pounds.

And it should be noted that Hexpol's capacity was incorrectly listed in last year's ranking as 292 million pounds. The correct capacity for 2021 was 1.25 billion pounds, and this year's ranking and subsequent charts reflect the change.

Hexpol aside, breaking down the industry along the lines of capacity gives us a bit clearer picture of the companies included in the rankings. And it's the newcomers to the ranking that made the biggest splashes.

In terms of capacity, American Phoenix falls into the No. 2 spot in North America, reporting turn pounds of 600 million. AirBoss ranks third with North American capacity of around 500 million pounds. Chem Technologies and Dyna-Mix round out the top five with North American mixing capacities of 165 million pounds and 150 million pounds, respectively.

Newcomers Barco, Quanex, Infinity Rubber Group and Chemionics fill out the sixth through ninth spots on the ranking, respectively, when filtered by capacity. Barco reported capacity of 110 million pounds, with Quanex recording capacity of about 60 million pounds. Infinity and Chemionics have capacity at 50 million pounds and 40 million pounds, respectively.

No matter where you stand in the custom mixing arena, there seems to be plenty of room for growth. Because there seems to be no shortage of investments and acquisitions.

Most notably, Wooster Elastomers L.L.C.—ranked 13th by capacity—saw some recent investments lead to significant capacity upgrades. According to surveys returned in 2021 and 2022, the Wooster, Ohio-based custom mixer reported 12 million pounds of North American capacity this year, up from the 3 million pounds it reported in 2021. The company said it added a mixing line.

QPoly—ranked 17th in terms of capacity—is another smaller custom mixer positioning itself for further growth. Just this year, the company purchased a new building in Elkhart, Ind., and is investing more than $1 million to grow its operations and expand its mixing capabilities.

Lula, Ga.-based Pinnacle Elastomeric Technology has invested in its capabilities as well. The company said it renovated its rubber testing laboratory and invested in new rubber testing equipment.

Larger custom mixers were investing, too. Chem Technologies noted that it recently opened a new research and development center, while also investing in plant expansions and adding equipment to upgrade its mixing lines.

AirBoss, one of the three biggest players in the North American custom mixing market, expanded as well. Specifically, its operations in Scotland Neck, N.C., saw the addition of a second mixing line and upgrades to equipment.

AirBoss, in recent years, also grew by acquisition, purchasing Rock Hill, S.C.-based Ace Elastomers for $42.5 million in August 2021. AirBoss, after all, had been looking to expand into color and specialty compounding, and with Ace it can do just that.

Perhaps the most notable acquisition of the last year is Quanex's $92 million purchase of LMI Custom Mixing.

For Quanex, the move just made sense, and the company knew LMI well. It had, after all, been a customer of LMI's for about two decades.

Moreover, the strategic benefits of the acquisition were clear, Quanex said in a 2022 news release. For one, LMI fit well with Quanex's material science and process engineering expertise, and it expanded Quanex's product portfolio "into a new, attractive category" that offered further opportunities for growth.

"Part of our strategy is to acquire businesses that help us grow in new and existing markets, reinforce our leadership positions, as well as enhance scale to create a more effective platform to drive growth and share gains," Quanex President and CEO George Wilson said in a statement when the deal was announced. "The acquisition of LMI delivers on all aspects of this strategy as it adds capabilities well-aligned with our material science and process engineering expertise while expanding our product offering into an attractive category with significant organic and inorganic growth opportunities."

Quanex offers products for the window, door, vinyl fencing, solar, refrigeration and cabinetry markets, and looks to expand into new and adjacent markets with LMI's expertise in house.

When it comes to North America's largest compounder, well, Hexpol isn't standing still. It's growing.

It recently expanded into the plastics space with the $120 million purchase of family-owned, North Canton, Ohio-based McCann Plastics.

McCann recorded $72 million in sales in 2021.

Moreover, Hexpol added quite a few upgrades to facilities across the continent. These include the addition of ultrasound test equipment at multiple sites. Other investments included:

And when it comes to sustainability, Hexpol said it's making significant investments there, too, spending $1.5 million for more efficient lighting at facilities, including Dyersburg, Whitewater and Huntingdon.

The company also installed solar array panels at facilities in Long Beach, Calif., and Aguascalientes and Queretaro, Mexico.

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