Images of hippie-era love beads and Native American-inspired
headbands can condemn beading in jewelry and accessories to appearing
quaint at best. But the artisan level of contemporary beaders crafting
today's fashion jewelry and accessories puts that image to rest.
Their
work has a decidedly modern, vibrant twist that makes it uniquely their
own. For starters, the beads themselves are often a global affair. A
bracelet might sport rare German vintage glass beads from the 1920s and
'30s, antique African trading or vintage Japanese metal beads.Bliss
Glass and stonemosaic.
Colors are brighter, louder than before. Geometric shapes and intricate
loom-woven patterns abound. Some artists tell stories in their work,
while others use meditative free-form patterns.Read about kidneystone symptoms and signs, They all pop with modern panache.
Chan
Luu arrived in the United States from Vietnam in 1972 during the
Vietnam War. She studied fashion and was working as a buyer when she had
a serendipitous meeting with an Indian holy man. He was wearing a "worn
but cool, colored-thread bracelet from a local temple," Luu says, and
her life was transformed. Inspired, she created her own wrap bracelet
using leather cord and handmade sterling silver nugget beads. It was her
namesake jewelry and fashion line's first offering and, "amazingly,
it's still our best seller," says Luu, who lives in Los Angeles.
Today
she has 12 design assistants who help produce her prolific patterns in
colors galore. All the beaded jewelry is handcrafted by female artisans
in Vietnam, and Luu says her great joy is in helping poor villagers "by
creating a sustainable commerce, so they can feed their families and put
their kids through school." Prices for the global brand range from $170
to $295.
Suzie Gallehugh, a native Texan, struck out on her own
in 2008 with the first offering in her beaded jewelry line, a necklace
she called Kathmandu. Soon thereafter, on a trip to India she met with
artisans and had samples made. When she returned to her home base of New
York City, she created a few more pieces, and within a few months her
line was picked up by Bergdorf Goodman and Calypso St. Barth.
Bold
and large, though lightweight, Dai's beaded jewelry is not for women
who want to just blend in. She beads new designs in full swatches, which
are then sent to her producers in India. "So often women tell me they'd
love to wear my jewelry but they're too shy, and I tell them, just try
it, you'll like it," Dai says. Her line is sold internationally and
ranges in price from $80 to $450, with custom orders available.
Massachusetts
sisters Lisa Sisco and Carolyn Berluti never started out to produce a
beaded jewelry bracelet line and are "accidental entrepreneurs,"
according to Sisco (who still works as a university professor). It all
began when Berluti brought home a pricey beaded bracelet from Barney's,
and Sisco exclaimed, "I could make that!" The pair did, and started with
sets of seven bracelets they gave as gifts to family and friends. But
it was when women started buying the jewelry off their wrists that they
knew they had something real for the market. Colorful,Find a rubberhose
Manufacturer and Supplier. playful and fun, the multi-stacked baubles
began being seen on celebrities, which, of course, spurred on sales.
With
about 25 basic styles, the sisters continue to make each piece by hand
themselves. When large orders arrive, "that's when we get all our
sisters together, invite friends over, get some wine and have a beading
bee," Sisco says. The two often still wear the bracelets themselves.
"People still come up and want them off our wrists," she says. Sisco
Berluti is sold in the U.S., and the price for a single bracelet is
typically about $88.
While studying at Duke University, twin
sisters Elizabeth and Kathryn Fortunato were already budding
bead-accessory businesswomen. When other students bee-lined to their
dorm room to borrow their handmade jewelry, Kathryn Fortunato thought,
"This could be a business." They began filling orders even as they
attended classes. Elizabeth Fortunato, the creative side of the company,
designs and makes every sample of the intricate and modernly bold
beaded panels, which are produced by hand on looms at a fair-trade
production center in India.
"I think our typical customer is
defined more by a mind set than an age or location," says Elizabeth
Fortunato,The online extension of moldmaking
Technology magazine. a former fashion publicist. "She's definitely
confident and interested in standing out — after all,The reality of
convenient handsfreeaccess
contro. our pieces can make quite the statement." She says many women
seem "as interested in displaying our work as they are in wearing it."
Based in New York City, they sell internationally, and prices range from
$100 to $900.
Southern Californian Ronnie Kappos decided after
she watched the Twin Towers collapse on9/11that "life is short, I want
to give this a try," referring to her budding beading work that started
while she studied at UC Santa Cruz, where she would scour the local
hippie-bead stores. "I wanted something clean, modern and architectural
in structure, and I didn't see it anywhere," she says.
Kappos
now almost exclusively uses rare, antique German glass beads from the
1920s and '30s that were made by pouring liquid directly in molds. She
lucked in to a huge stash of the very hard-to-find baubles and knew
that's exactly what she wanted for her work. She uses the opaque,
geometric, flat beads for her colorful necklaces and bracelets.
2012年7月23日 星期一
2012年4月27日 星期五
Protester at party conventions could be armed
The thousands of protesters expected at
the Democratic and Republican national conventions can come armed with a lot
more than signs and slogans: State law in Florida and North Carolina allows
concealed weapons, including guns.
In Tampa, where the Republicans will hold their festivities this fall, officials are starting to worry about people toting guns in such a politically charged environment. The City Council voted Thursday to ask Republican Gov. Rick Scott to help them temporarily ban concealed weapons. Charlotte officials have yet to publically voice concern, but with both cities trying to balance public safety with First and Second Amendment rights, it's likely the host city for the Democratic convention will also have to address the issue.
The Tampa City Council wants Scott to issue an executive order, preventing people with concealed weapons permits from carrying guns.
"We believe it is necessary and prudent to take this reasonable step to prevent a potential tragedy," council member Lisa Montelione said in a draft letter to Scott.
Tampa city leaders have already proposed a host of banned items (lumber, hatchets, gas masks, chains and "super soaker" water cannons) - but they are prevented from outlawing concealed guns.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said the state law has made the city "look silly," particularly because officials can ban water guns but not real ones.Credit Card Processing and Merchant Services from merchantaccountes.
"We're kind of constrained by the state law," he said.
The issue is a more complicated in Charlotte. The city in January adopted an ordinance allowing it to set up "extraordinary event zones" - designated areas where people won't be allowed to carry backpacks and other items.
The city wanted to ban guns in those zones. State law, though, allows people to carry concealed weapons - unless they're at a parade or protest.
"The zone is going to be far bigger than a demonstration area. So if I have a demonstration that marches us down main street, but the extraordinary event zone covers all of downtown, what about the area outside the demonstration? That's the piece that been hitting us here," said Mark Newbold, an attorney with the Charlotte police department.
Tens of thousands of delegates, journalists and political junkies will stream into the mid-sized cities for the multi-day conventions. Republicans hold their event at the Tampa Bay Times Arena Aug. 27-30.3rd minigame series of magiccube! The Democrats' party is a week later at the Time Warner Cable Arena. Inside the arenas, the Secret Service has banned civilians from carrying guns.
Both cities have hosted large gatherings before - Tampa has held four Super Bowls and Charlotte has entertained the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament and the National Rifle Association convention - but neither has really experienced an event such as this.
In the past 50 years, political conventions have become a magnet for protesters, and they have sometimes turned ugly.
In 1968, demonstrators tried to disrupt the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Scenes of police clashing with protesters on the streets played on TV screens in living rooms across America. Four years later, anti-war demonstrators disrupted the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach.
More recently, thousands of protesters descended on St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2008, when the city hosted the Republican National Convention. Some demonstrators smashed cars, punctured tires and threw bottles in a confrontation with pepper-spray-wielding police. Hundreds of people were arrested over a few days.
"Everything we are doing is based on something that happened at another convention or another national security event," Tampa City Attorney Jim Shimberg said.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.
The federal government has given $50 million each to Charlotte and Tampa to help them pay for new security-related equipment, training and officer salaries.Welcome to projectorlamp.
Tampa is proposing a "Clean Zone" protest area with portable toilets, water, a stage and a microphone for protesters. Outside that area, people will be allowed to march down an official parade route as long as they have a permit.
In Tampa, where the Republicans will hold their festivities this fall, officials are starting to worry about people toting guns in such a politically charged environment. The City Council voted Thursday to ask Republican Gov. Rick Scott to help them temporarily ban concealed weapons. Charlotte officials have yet to publically voice concern, but with both cities trying to balance public safety with First and Second Amendment rights, it's likely the host city for the Democratic convention will also have to address the issue.
The Tampa City Council wants Scott to issue an executive order, preventing people with concealed weapons permits from carrying guns.
"We believe it is necessary and prudent to take this reasonable step to prevent a potential tragedy," council member Lisa Montelione said in a draft letter to Scott.
Tampa city leaders have already proposed a host of banned items (lumber, hatchets, gas masks, chains and "super soaker" water cannons) - but they are prevented from outlawing concealed guns.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said the state law has made the city "look silly," particularly because officials can ban water guns but not real ones.Credit Card Processing and Merchant Services from merchantaccountes.
"We're kind of constrained by the state law," he said.
The issue is a more complicated in Charlotte. The city in January adopted an ordinance allowing it to set up "extraordinary event zones" - designated areas where people won't be allowed to carry backpacks and other items.
The city wanted to ban guns in those zones. State law, though, allows people to carry concealed weapons - unless they're at a parade or protest.
"The zone is going to be far bigger than a demonstration area. So if I have a demonstration that marches us down main street, but the extraordinary event zone covers all of downtown, what about the area outside the demonstration? That's the piece that been hitting us here," said Mark Newbold, an attorney with the Charlotte police department.
Tens of thousands of delegates, journalists and political junkies will stream into the mid-sized cities for the multi-day conventions. Republicans hold their event at the Tampa Bay Times Arena Aug. 27-30.3rd minigame series of magiccube! The Democrats' party is a week later at the Time Warner Cable Arena. Inside the arenas, the Secret Service has banned civilians from carrying guns.
Both cities have hosted large gatherings before - Tampa has held four Super Bowls and Charlotte has entertained the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament and the National Rifle Association convention - but neither has really experienced an event such as this.
In the past 50 years, political conventions have become a magnet for protesters, and they have sometimes turned ugly.
In 1968, demonstrators tried to disrupt the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Scenes of police clashing with protesters on the streets played on TV screens in living rooms across America. Four years later, anti-war demonstrators disrupted the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach.
More recently, thousands of protesters descended on St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2008, when the city hosted the Republican National Convention. Some demonstrators smashed cars, punctured tires and threw bottles in a confrontation with pepper-spray-wielding police. Hundreds of people were arrested over a few days.
"Everything we are doing is based on something that happened at another convention or another national security event," Tampa City Attorney Jim Shimberg said.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.
The federal government has given $50 million each to Charlotte and Tampa to help them pay for new security-related equipment, training and officer salaries.Welcome to projectorlamp.
Tampa is proposing a "Clean Zone" protest area with portable toilets, water, a stage and a microphone for protesters. Outside that area, people will be allowed to march down an official parade route as long as they have a permit.
NHGRI to develop revolutionary technologies for exploring genome function
The
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded 10 grants, totalling $10.5 million, to
develop revolutionary technologies that will help researchers identify millions
of genomic elements that play a role in determining what genes are expressed and
at what levels in different cells.
These multi-year grants are part of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, whose aim is to provide the scientific community with a comprehensive catalogue of functional genomic elements that will ultimately help explain the role that the genome plays in health and disease.
“The ENCODE project is providing a Rosetta Stone to understand how the sequence of the human genome forms the words that tell our bodies how to work at the molecular level,” said Eric D Green, MD,A wireless indoorpositioning is described in this paper, PhD, director of NHGRI, which directs and funds the ENCODE project. “By developing more revolutionary technologies for probing genome function, we expect to accelerate these efforts.”
Sequencing the human genome and identifying the small fraction of its bases that directly code for proteins were among the first steps in understanding how the genome functions. But the remaining larger fraction of functional genomic elements continues to be a mystery. In response, NHGRI launched the ENCODE project to identify all the functional elements in the human genome, along with the modENCODE project to identify the functional elements in the fly and worm genomes and a smaller effort examining the mouse genome. These projects have been rapidly releasing data to the research community.
These ENCODE efforts have collected large amounts of data with a wide variety of cell types, in many cases identifying key functional landmarks. By studying these landmarks, researchers can establish the locations of DNA sequences that perform a variety of essential functions.
“In an exciting development, researchers are beginning to use the ENCODE catalogues to understand how variation in the DNA sequence might influence diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders,” said Mike Pazin, PhD, a programme director for ENCODE in NHGRI's Division of Extramural Research.
Each person has one genome sequence that is basically the same in all cell types. In contrast, many genomic elements function in only some cell types. As a result, researchers must test many cell types using many different experimental approaches to develop a detailed inventory of the functional elements in the genome. Revolutionary technological improvements are required to discover and test the millions of functional elements and to learn more precisely what they do.If you have a kidneystone, Significant advances are also needed to establish whether information about these functional elements can be used in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
“The current ENCODE efforts owe a good part of their success to technology development that has occurred over the last decade,” said Elise A Feingold, PhD,Learn all about solarpanel. a programme director for ENCODE in NHGRI's Division of Extramural Research. “In addition to the technologies developed through this programme, ENCODE has benefitted enormously from advances fostered by NHGRI’s DNA sequencing technology initiative,A Hybrid indoorpositioningsystem for First Responders. the $1000 Genome Programme.”
Discovery of functional genomic elements will be addressed by funding projects for a new assay to identify RNA splicing elements, new assays to identify promoters and enhancers, as well as a project to improve assays for identifying functional elements by allowing these assays to work reliably using smaller samples. Splicing is the process that joins RNA copies of gene segments together to form mRNA, the blueprint for the production of proteins. Errors in splicing sometimes lead to human disease. Promoters specify the sites in the genome where genes begin and much gene regulation occurs. Enhancers are genomic elements that can turn on expression of nearby and distant genes. Mutations in promoters and enhancers can cause human disease.
Validation of biological elements will be addressed by funding projects for new methods with improved throughput, and a smaller project to improve accuracy by testing elements in their natural genomic context.
Computational analysis will be addressed by funding projects to predict regulatory protein binding and gene expression based on sequence alone,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, and to predict chromosomal interactions and link functional elements to their target genes.
Discovery of Functional Elements: Christopher Burge, Ph.D.; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.; $800,000 ; Researchers will develop a new technology to catalog all of the RNA branch points that form in mRNA during splicing.
Mats Ljungman, Ph.D.; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; $1,200,000 ; Using bromouridine labeling of RNA, these researchers will develop new assays (BruChase-Seq and BrUV-Seq) to identity promoters and enhancers and to measure mRNA degradation and splicing kinetics.
Raymond David Hawkins, Ph.D.; University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle; $460,000 (over two years); These researchers will improve the power of ChIP-seq assays to identify functional elements. ChIP-seq is one of the fundamental assays used in ENCODE to identify the locations in the genome that are attached to a particular protein.
These multi-year grants are part of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, whose aim is to provide the scientific community with a comprehensive catalogue of functional genomic elements that will ultimately help explain the role that the genome plays in health and disease.
“The ENCODE project is providing a Rosetta Stone to understand how the sequence of the human genome forms the words that tell our bodies how to work at the molecular level,” said Eric D Green, MD,A wireless indoorpositioning is described in this paper, PhD, director of NHGRI, which directs and funds the ENCODE project. “By developing more revolutionary technologies for probing genome function, we expect to accelerate these efforts.”
Sequencing the human genome and identifying the small fraction of its bases that directly code for proteins were among the first steps in understanding how the genome functions. But the remaining larger fraction of functional genomic elements continues to be a mystery. In response, NHGRI launched the ENCODE project to identify all the functional elements in the human genome, along with the modENCODE project to identify the functional elements in the fly and worm genomes and a smaller effort examining the mouse genome. These projects have been rapidly releasing data to the research community.
These ENCODE efforts have collected large amounts of data with a wide variety of cell types, in many cases identifying key functional landmarks. By studying these landmarks, researchers can establish the locations of DNA sequences that perform a variety of essential functions.
“In an exciting development, researchers are beginning to use the ENCODE catalogues to understand how variation in the DNA sequence might influence diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders,” said Mike Pazin, PhD, a programme director for ENCODE in NHGRI's Division of Extramural Research.
Each person has one genome sequence that is basically the same in all cell types. In contrast, many genomic elements function in only some cell types. As a result, researchers must test many cell types using many different experimental approaches to develop a detailed inventory of the functional elements in the genome. Revolutionary technological improvements are required to discover and test the millions of functional elements and to learn more precisely what they do.If you have a kidneystone, Significant advances are also needed to establish whether information about these functional elements can be used in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
“The current ENCODE efforts owe a good part of their success to technology development that has occurred over the last decade,” said Elise A Feingold, PhD,Learn all about solarpanel. a programme director for ENCODE in NHGRI's Division of Extramural Research. “In addition to the technologies developed through this programme, ENCODE has benefitted enormously from advances fostered by NHGRI’s DNA sequencing technology initiative,A Hybrid indoorpositioningsystem for First Responders. the $1000 Genome Programme.”
Discovery of functional genomic elements will be addressed by funding projects for a new assay to identify RNA splicing elements, new assays to identify promoters and enhancers, as well as a project to improve assays for identifying functional elements by allowing these assays to work reliably using smaller samples. Splicing is the process that joins RNA copies of gene segments together to form mRNA, the blueprint for the production of proteins. Errors in splicing sometimes lead to human disease. Promoters specify the sites in the genome where genes begin and much gene regulation occurs. Enhancers are genomic elements that can turn on expression of nearby and distant genes. Mutations in promoters and enhancers can cause human disease.
Validation of biological elements will be addressed by funding projects for new methods with improved throughput, and a smaller project to improve accuracy by testing elements in their natural genomic context.
Computational analysis will be addressed by funding projects to predict regulatory protein binding and gene expression based on sequence alone,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, and to predict chromosomal interactions and link functional elements to their target genes.
Discovery of Functional Elements: Christopher Burge, Ph.D.; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.; $800,000 ; Researchers will develop a new technology to catalog all of the RNA branch points that form in mRNA during splicing.
Mats Ljungman, Ph.D.; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; $1,200,000 ; Using bromouridine labeling of RNA, these researchers will develop new assays (BruChase-Seq and BrUV-Seq) to identity promoters and enhancers and to measure mRNA degradation and splicing kinetics.
Raymond David Hawkins, Ph.D.; University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle; $460,000 (over two years); These researchers will improve the power of ChIP-seq assays to identify functional elements. ChIP-seq is one of the fundamental assays used in ENCODE to identify the locations in the genome that are attached to a particular protein.
2012年2月16日 星期四
M&A rebound rolling into 2012
The rebound of the global mergers and acquisitions market is expected to continue in 2012 — and that’s good news for plastics pros like Mike Huff and Vern Boersma.
Huff is CEO of Citadel Plastic Holdings Inc., the Radnor, Pa.-based firm that’s made six acquisitions in the compounding market since 2007 and is now seeking a buyer. Boersma is chief financial officer of Engineered Plastic Components Inc. Based in Grinnell, Iowa, EPC has made 13 injection molding-related acquisitions since 2007 — including five in 2011 alone — and is looking to make more.
Huff and Boersma – along with financial veterans Thomas Blaige and John Chrysikopoulos — spoke at the 2012 Plastics News Executive Forum, Jan. 30-Feb. 1 in Tampa.
Huff pointed out that each of Citadel’s six acquisitions “aligned with our basic strategy of building a broad array of material solutions.Learn all about solarpanel,” The firm has annual sales of about $300 million, operating 14 sites in seven countries.
“We had to assess each one’s strategic fit and ask if it will add material technology or if it complements our portfolio,” he said.We offer custom plasticinjectionmoulding with full in-house tool making and tool maintenance. “Our overall goal was to build a world-class global material solutions provider.”
Now that Citadel — which is owned by Chicago private equity firm Wind Point Partners — is looking for a buyer, Huff said that officials are “very excited about moving to the next generation of ownership.
EPC’s buying spree — 15 deals in total since its founding in 1994 -makes it look like Citadel proceeded with caution. “It’s been a fun ride, and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon,” Boersma said.
“We determined our growth plan by industry and by geographic area,” he added. “Every one of the deals is customer-driven. Sometimes a supplier is going under, and tools and molds are available.”
One of the keys to EPC’s rapid-fire approach to M&A, according to Boersma, is that owner and CEO Reza Karzagadeh is the firm’s decision maker. “We don’t have to go to a board of directors,” Boersma said. “We know the industry and the financial side.”
With sales of $175 million expected in 2012 — from 14 plants, all in North America — EPC now is looking to diversify beyond its current sales mix, which is almost 60 percent automotive and 30 percent appliance.You can find best china automotiveplasticmoulds manufacturers from here!
Blaige and Chrysikopoulos each said they’re observing signs that plastics-related M&A is heading in the right direction in early 2012.
Blaige — chairman and CEO of Blaige & Co. In Chicago — said that deal volume in plastics and packaging M&A increased tenfold between 2001 and 2010. The sector “doesn’t see ups and downs like the larger economy,” he explained.
Bigger companies are becoming increasingly active in plastics M&A, according to Blaige. In seven market segmants studied by his firm, 55 percent of the top 50 companies in each segment have been involved in deals in the last 10 years.
“It’s lead,Plastic injection molding and injectionmolding parts in as quick at 3 days. follow or get out of the way,” he said.
Valuation multiples paid by private equity companies also were back to 9.1 times earnings last year. They were at 9.5 in 2008 before sinking as low as 6.5 in 2009. Both Blaige and Chrysikopoulos said the current market is a sellers’ market.
“It may be time to sell fairly soon,” Blaige said. “The industry’s investment cycles are getting shorter.”
Chrysikopoulos — a managing director with Mesirow Financial in Chicago — said that plastics have accounted for 43 percent of all packaging deals made since 2007. Strategic buyers have been the most active during that time, he said, adding that valuations have been improving of late.
An index of stock prices of six flexible packaging firms has climbed 47 percent since 2007. Those firms now have higher cash balances and have been aided by recovery in public markets, Chrysikopoulos said.
An astonishing amount of funds — more than $400 billion — remains uninvested in U.S. private equity. Flexible packaging consolidation may be a target of these funds, since, according to Chrysikopoulos, top three firms Berry Plastics Corp., Bemis Co. and Sealed Air Corp. have a combined market share of less than 30 percent.
As for what kinds of plastics companies investors are seeking in 2012,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? Chrysikopoulos said they’re “looking for leadership, high organizational growth and strong technology.”
Huff is CEO of Citadel Plastic Holdings Inc., the Radnor, Pa.-based firm that’s made six acquisitions in the compounding market since 2007 and is now seeking a buyer. Boersma is chief financial officer of Engineered Plastic Components Inc. Based in Grinnell, Iowa, EPC has made 13 injection molding-related acquisitions since 2007 — including five in 2011 alone — and is looking to make more.
Huff and Boersma – along with financial veterans Thomas Blaige and John Chrysikopoulos — spoke at the 2012 Plastics News Executive Forum, Jan. 30-Feb. 1 in Tampa.
Huff pointed out that each of Citadel’s six acquisitions “aligned with our basic strategy of building a broad array of material solutions.Learn all about solarpanel,” The firm has annual sales of about $300 million, operating 14 sites in seven countries.
“We had to assess each one’s strategic fit and ask if it will add material technology or if it complements our portfolio,” he said.We offer custom plasticinjectionmoulding with full in-house tool making and tool maintenance. “Our overall goal was to build a world-class global material solutions provider.”
Now that Citadel — which is owned by Chicago private equity firm Wind Point Partners — is looking for a buyer, Huff said that officials are “very excited about moving to the next generation of ownership.
EPC’s buying spree — 15 deals in total since its founding in 1994 -makes it look like Citadel proceeded with caution. “It’s been a fun ride, and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon,” Boersma said.
“We determined our growth plan by industry and by geographic area,” he added. “Every one of the deals is customer-driven. Sometimes a supplier is going under, and tools and molds are available.”
One of the keys to EPC’s rapid-fire approach to M&A, according to Boersma, is that owner and CEO Reza Karzagadeh is the firm’s decision maker. “We don’t have to go to a board of directors,” Boersma said. “We know the industry and the financial side.”
With sales of $175 million expected in 2012 — from 14 plants, all in North America — EPC now is looking to diversify beyond its current sales mix, which is almost 60 percent automotive and 30 percent appliance.You can find best china automotiveplasticmoulds manufacturers from here!
Blaige and Chrysikopoulos each said they’re observing signs that plastics-related M&A is heading in the right direction in early 2012.
Blaige — chairman and CEO of Blaige & Co. In Chicago — said that deal volume in plastics and packaging M&A increased tenfold between 2001 and 2010. The sector “doesn’t see ups and downs like the larger economy,” he explained.
Bigger companies are becoming increasingly active in plastics M&A, according to Blaige. In seven market segmants studied by his firm, 55 percent of the top 50 companies in each segment have been involved in deals in the last 10 years.
“It’s lead,Plastic injection molding and injectionmolding parts in as quick at 3 days. follow or get out of the way,” he said.
Valuation multiples paid by private equity companies also were back to 9.1 times earnings last year. They were at 9.5 in 2008 before sinking as low as 6.5 in 2009. Both Blaige and Chrysikopoulos said the current market is a sellers’ market.
“It may be time to sell fairly soon,” Blaige said. “The industry’s investment cycles are getting shorter.”
Chrysikopoulos — a managing director with Mesirow Financial in Chicago — said that plastics have accounted for 43 percent of all packaging deals made since 2007. Strategic buyers have been the most active during that time, he said, adding that valuations have been improving of late.
An index of stock prices of six flexible packaging firms has climbed 47 percent since 2007. Those firms now have higher cash balances and have been aided by recovery in public markets, Chrysikopoulos said.
An astonishing amount of funds — more than $400 billion — remains uninvested in U.S. private equity. Flexible packaging consolidation may be a target of these funds, since, according to Chrysikopoulos, top three firms Berry Plastics Corp., Bemis Co. and Sealed Air Corp. have a combined market share of less than 30 percent.
As for what kinds of plastics companies investors are seeking in 2012,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? Chrysikopoulos said they’re “looking for leadership, high organizational growth and strong technology.”
2011年6月6日 星期一
CNET Asia Review
The Acer Iconia Tab A500 is a good choice for budget seekers looking to hop onto the Android Honeycomb bandwagon.
Not one to miss a trend, Acer has a long history of pushing products into new categories almost as soon as they are created. The Acer Aspire One was one of the first Netbooks to hit the stores two years ago. This time, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 joined the first wave of Android tablets sporting the latest Google Honeycomb operating system. In line with the company's value positioning, the S$699 (US$544.14) Iconia Tab may be the cheapest Honeycomb device from an international brand in stores at this time.
At this price point, we were pleasantly surprised that Acer went with a brushed aluminum chassis instead of a plastic body. The Apple iPad 2 and Motorola Xoom also use metal in their construction but costs significantly more at S$798 (US$621.21) and S$988 (US$769.11) for the 32GB models, respectively. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer costs the same as the Iconia Tab A500, but comes with a plastic chassis and 16GB internal storage.
Not one to miss a trend, Acer has a long history of pushing products into new categories almost as soon as they are created. The Acer Aspire One was one of the first Netbooks to hit the stores two years ago. This time, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 joined the first wave of Android tablets sporting the latest Google Honeycomb operating system. In line with the company's value positioning, the S$699 (US$544.14) Iconia Tab may be the cheapest Honeycomb device from an international brand in stores at this time.
At this price point, we were pleasantly surprised that Acer went with a brushed aluminum chassis instead of a plastic body. The Apple iPad 2 and Motorola Xoom also use metal in their construction but costs significantly more at S$798 (US$621.21) and S$988 (US$769.11) for the 32GB models, respectively. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer costs the same as the Iconia Tab A500, but comes with a plastic chassis and 16GB internal storage.
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