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Plastics Capital Ltd. (UK, privately held) has acquired Sarnatech BNL from the Sarna Group (UK).
Founded in 2002 as a holding company, Plastics Capital has grown by acquiring several specialty industrial product manufacturers. The company said its objective is to, "buy good businesses with proprietary products and a market leading position, and to develop them further."
Parent company, Sarna Polymer Holdings (Switzerland), put Sarnatech BNL up for sale this past March 2005, part of its effort to divest nonstrategic business units to focus on its Sarnafil polymer sheeting business. Today, even as it announces the BNL divestiture, Sarna Polymer Holdings is being acquired by Sika (Switzerland), which also produces polymer membrane and sheeting products.
BNL high-precision ball bearings for roof vent fan
Sarnatech BNL is the world leader in lubricant-free thermoplastic rolling element bearings, producing approximately 50 million bearings each year. It is also the leading automotive Tier 1 supplier of custom plastic bearings for various in-car applications. The bearings usually have integrally formed shafts, gears or mechanical assemblies, and are found in most photocopiers, office machines, signs, cameras, computer scanners, food processing equipment and chemical processing equipment.
Although plastic bearings are most often designed for a particular application, BNL is unique in that its sales efforts also directly target "conversion" OEM sales for applications where the original bearings and related subassemblies are made from more traditional materials.
BNL has several offices around the world in Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Spain and the USA, in addition to its UK headquarters and manufacturing facility in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. Knaresborough employs approximately 120 people and has annual sales of approximately USD $13 million.
BNL's founder, David Garnett, is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the molded polymer bearing (BNL, or "Bearing No Lube"). Mr. Garnett developed the molded polymer bearing idea when he worked for Koyo. He left Koyo in 1970 to found BNL Bearing.
The central idea behind the BNL bearing is that it is a rolling element bearing which is usually molded directly into the component. For example, in a photocopier application, the paper feed roller is designed and formed to function as the bearing's outer race. This integral design and molding makes for more efficient design and assembly, along with fewer parts and fewer opportunities for design and service problems.
Mr. Garnett sold BNL in 1988, later bought it back, then sold it again, this time to Sarna, in 1994. Mr. Garnett died in September 2003 after a battle with cancer.
When Sarna announced it was putting Sarnatech BNL up for sale, many analysts noted they believe BNL is the only profitable piece of Sarna's entire automotive supply division.
New owner Plastics Capital Ltd., is notoriously publicity-shy, and had repeatedly declined to discuss its operations or plans. Plastics Capital now owns four specialty manufacturing businesses in the UK. The company is run by Faisal Rahmatallah, Chairman of Broker Network Holdings, a UK-based insurance broker.
Plastics Capital reportedly intends to keep BNL intact and operating as separate entity, as it did under Sarna. Its name will change to BNL (UK) Ltd. in the UK, while the US and Japanese subsidiaries will change their names to BNL (USA) Inc. and BNL (Japan) Inc., respectively.
Standard All-polymer Ball Bearing
BNL's Managing Director, Dr. Neil Partlett, said: "... we have operated as an independently managed organization. We are sure our customers will notice no difference in the level of service they receive. In fact we anticipate our customers will realize further benefits from our business relationship in the future as we continue to provide innovative and cost effective bearing solutions to help them meet their objectives."
Mr. Rahmatallah said: "We are very pleased to have acquired BNL. The company has real depth of experience in plastic bearings design and manufacture -- it is a leader in its field and will be able to build on this for the foreseeable future."
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
| Product Model | Inside Diameter | Outside Diameter | Thickness |
| FLCTE30 bearing | 30 | 112.5 | 38.1 |
| FLCTEY25 bearing | 25 | 97 | 29.4 |