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INSIGHT Waterbury, CT. - USA Heitkamp & Thumann Group of Dusseldorf, Germany, announced Thursday it has acquired Presspart Manufacturing Ltd. of Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and its American subsidiary, Presspart Inc. of Cary, N.C. Presspart makes a variety of metal products, including aluminum aerosol canisters for the pharmaceutical industry, various automotive parts and metal pen refill components. Heitkamp said the Presspart companies will add about 230 employees to its global total of 1,520 and are expected to increase sales by 12 percent. The acquisitions also could add customers and increase sales for one of Heitkamp's Waterbury divisions, Truelove & Maclean Inc. at 984 Waterville St., said Bruce Baker, Truelove's vice president of human resources. "There's a pretty good possibility that this acquisition will bring us more business down the road," Baker said Friday. Truelove & Maclean, which employs about 230 people, has two manufacturing units, a battery components group, which makes casings for batteries, and a deep drawn metal components group, Baker said. Deep drawn products are stamped metal parts made by a process in which a sheet or strip of metal is drawn on a press and stamped into any shape required by the manufacturing process. The metal sheets can be anything from steel to stainless steel to brass, copper or aluminum. Truelove's deep drawn components division makes a variety of metal-stamped cans used primarily in the auto industry in airbags, dashboard parts, thermostats and capacitors, Baker said. Baker said the Presspart acquisition gives Heitkamp a number of new customers in the automotive industry, which could result in additional work for Truelove's deep drawn components division. Thursday's acquisition could even lead to more jobs at the Waterville Street facility in the future, he said. "It's really too early to say for sure what this means, but it's reasonable to assume this will all have a positive impact on our operation somewhere down the road," Baker said. "The economy still hasn't fully recovered, but we're certainly hopeful this news will mean good things for us as soon as things start picking up." Presspart's North Carolina operation is housed in a 20,000-square-foot factory that employs 25 people, said Martin Kuehnemann, the subsidiary's comptroller. Presspart manufactures a number of automotive products, including stainless steel components used to assemble water pumps, but the company is primarily known as one of the world's leading manufacturers of aluminum aerosol canisters for measured-dosage inhalers, such as those used by people with asthma or other breathing problems. Presspart's two locations make 60 to 70 percent of the pharmaceutical aerosol canisters used in the world, Kuehnemann said. Heitkamp owns two other area facilities, Bouffard Metal Goods Inc. at 57 Callendar Road in Watertown, and Westfalia Inc. at 2140 Thomaston Ave. in Waterbury. Bouffard Metal Goods employs about 120 workers while Westfalia maintains a small local operation of less than five people, Baker said. Neither company is likely to be impacted by the Presspart purchase because Bouffard is part of Heitkamp's battery group and Westfalia is part of a group that handles seat parts, flexible hoses and air ducts.
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