Par Foam Products to close down after sale to Massachusetts buyer
Par Foam Products, a Buffalo business with 52 employees, is headed for a shutdown after it was acquired by a Massachusetts- based company.
The company’s sale to Rogers Foam Corp. was completed last Saturday. Rogers will take up to three months to phase out Par Foam’s plant and move the company’s tools and production to other facilities, said Roland Neuffer, Par Foam’s vice president and owner.
Neuffer and business partner Kaushik Shah founded Par Foam in 1981. At its peak 10 years ago, the company employed 198 people and recorded annual sales of $14 million. Its sales are now close to $7 million, Neuffer said.
“I never thought we’d work forever, but I thought it would end with a more successful conclusion,” said Neuffer, who is 64.
Par Foam’s Van Rensselaer Street plant produces gaskets, seals and filters made of polyurethane foam and sponge rubber for automotive, medical, office equipment, industrial, packaging and household uses.
Its three largest customers, Visteon Corp., Delphi Corp. and Xerox Corp., have all faced struggles of their own, Neuffer said. “We sold ourselves to a strategic fit due to the downturn in business.”
Par Foam explored possible acquisitions by four or five different companies and determined Rogers was the best match. The sale price was not disclosed.
“They’re interviewing [employees] and extending some offers to relocate to Flint,” Mich., where Rogers has opened a plant, Neuffer said.
Rogers, which was founded in 1947, has nine facilities, including its headquarters in Somerville, Mass. and locations in Mexico and Singapore. The company on its Web site says it has more than 500 employees. A Rogers representative could not be reached to comment Monday.
In 1992, Neuffer and Shah won a regional Minority Small Business Person of the Year award from the U. S. Small Business Administration.
Par Foam also owns the plant where it operates but the property was not included in the sale to Rogers, Neuffer said.
