Ravago buys controlling stake in M. Holland

In a massive deal affecting North American resin distribution, Ravago Group has acquired a majority stake in M. Holland Co. for an undisclosed price.

Ravago already ranks as the region's largest resin distributor. Northbrook, Ill.-based M. Holland is one of the five largest, according to industry estimates.

M. Holland officials said that the transaction "will enable [the firm] to accelerate its growth strategy, providing the company with greater scale and resources as the plastics industry continues to rapidly evolve."

The founding Holland family will retain "a significant stake" in the firm. No other financial terms were disclosed.

After the transaction closes, M. Holland will continue to operate independently as a subsidiary of Ravago Group. M. Holland's existing management team — including CEO and Chairman Ed Holland and President and Chief Operating Officer Marc Fern — will continue to lead the company.

Ed Holland said that the transaction "is an important inflection point … as it places the company on a clear path to continued and long-term success."

"Following an exhaustive review of strategic paths, we determined the best way to serve our stakeholders and set up M. Holland for success over the next 70 years was to partner with an organization that shared our passion for employees, customers and suppliers," he added. "Ravago Group is that partner."

Ed Holland also said that the deal "is a rare opportunity for two strong, family-owned organizations to come together in a way that will ensure our customers get what they need, when they need it for years to come."

Ravago Holdings America President and CEO Jim Duffy said that M. Holland "is a well-known and respected name in the plastics industry, and we are thrilled to welcome Ed and his entire team to the Ravago Group family of companies."

"We are confident we will be able to provide M. Holland with the resources and capital necessary to scale the business and sustain its growth, all the while maintaining its strong culture and brand," Duffy added.

M. Holland's Fern said that the combination "is an exciting moment" for his firm.

"Partnering with Ravago Group … is the best possible option for M. Holland to retain our strong brand, while also positioning ourselves for the next phase of growth," Fern said.

The deal marks the third time in less than five years that a major North American resin distributor has had an ownership change. In early 2019, private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners paid $640 million for Nexeo Plastics of The Woodlands, Texas.

Then in late 2022, Miami-based HIG Capital acquired Avient Corp.'s resin distribution unit in a $950 million all-cash deal. That business now operates as Formerra.

Both M. Holland and Ravago have grown through acquisitions in recent years. M. Holland made its first-ever acquisition in late 2012 when it purchased Christler Chemical & Plastics Inc., a distributor of engineering and commodity thermoplastic resins based in Wilsonville, Ore.

M. Holland made four acquisitions from 2012-17, with the last being its deal for T&T Marketing of Andover, Mass. Today, M. Holland has annual sales of more than $1.5 billion and more than 4,000 global customers.

Ravago's first big North American move came in 2006 when it acquired a majority stake in H. Muehlstein & Co. The firm then launched into a series of deals, including acquisitions of North American distributors Amco Polymers, Entec Polymers and Channel Prime Alliance.

Most recently, Ravago earlier this year partnered with solid waste management giant Republic Services Inc. of Phoenix to form Blue Polymers LLC, a joint venture that will build plants that generate 100 percent post-consumer resins.

M. Holland distributes materials for almost 30 suppliers, while Ravago's North American business units represent a similar number. Material suppliers represented by both firms include BASF, Braskem, Celanese, Chevron Phillips, Nova Chemicals, Covestro, ExxonMobil and Westlake.

And while the year hasn't been a great one for resin demand, Ed Holland recently told Plastics News that his firm was seeing more new projects in mid-July than it had earlier in the year. "It's been choppy, but it's picking up," he said. "We're heading in the right direction."

Ravago, based in Luxembourg with a U.S. headquarters in Orlando, Fla., distributes, resells, compounds and recycles plastic raw materials at more than 325 locations across more than 55 countries worldwide. It employs 8,000 at 45 manufacturing facilities, including 19 recycling and compounding plants in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa with a combined annual capacity of about 1.7 billion pounds.

M. Holland is one of North America's largest resin distributors, selling more than $1.5 billion in materials to more than 4,000 customers annually. The firm serves more than 70 countries across North America, Latin American, Europe, the Middle East and Asia and has offices in the U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Netherlands.