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Gaymar Industries sold for $150M

Business First of Buffalo - by Tracey Drury

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Gaymar Industries is being acquired by a Michigan company in a $150 million deal.

The privately-held Orchard Park medical manufacturer, which specializes in support surface, pressure ulcer management solutions for the health-care industry, will be bought by medical devices giant Stryker Corp. (NYSE: SYK) in an all-cash transaction announced Wednesday.
Kent Davies, Gaymar CEO, said the deal will broaden the availability of Gaymar’s products.

“The integration of our complementary product portfolio will strengthen Stryker’s leadership in patient handling while driving innovations that can help prevent adverse events and reduce health-care costs,” he said. “Through Stryker, we will provide more opportunities to our employees, our customers and the patients that we serve.”

The deal, which has been approved by the boards of directors at both companies, is expected to close by Oct. 1.

Founded in 1956, Gaymar Industries has been owned by private equity firms Nautic Partners and Norwest Equity Partners since 2003.

According to a company statement, Gaymar has provided Stryker with exclusive rights to sell support surface and pressure ulcer management products to acute care customers in North America for the past 10 years through an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement between Stryker’s Medical division and Gaymar.

The acquisition expands Stryker’s product offerings in the high-performance support surface and pressure ulcer management market, while also providing a complementary product offering to its existing customer base through its temperature management technology platform.

Gaymar had sales last year of about $77 million, of which approximately $14 million were related to the existing OEM relationship with Stryker.

Stephen MacMillan, chairman, president and CEO of Stryker, said the acquisition is consistent with Stryker’s strategic goal of expanding its existing product offering and extensive sales force presence via innovative and value added products.

“In addition to a talented team, Gaymar provides our medical division with an attractive portfolio of high-performance support surface and pressure ulcer management products that target an approximately $1.8 billion worldwide market, while simultaneously enhancing our customer relationships through the addition of their temperature management offering,” he said.

In March, Gaymar announced it would close its facility in Kitchener, Ont., and consolidate manufacturing and distribution operations in Orchard Park. The company has about 200 full-time employees in Western New York, and another 150 in Puerto Rico.

Stryker, based in Kalamazoo, Mich., is a leading medical devices company, providing orthopaedic implants and other medical and surgical equipment. The company last year had worldwide sales of $6.7 billion