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Aug 05, 2023

Creative

Updated — Fiber-reinforced composites company Creative Pultrusions Inc. has expanded its custom manufacturing and field services work with the acquisition of Kenway Corp. CPI, based in Alum Bank, Pa.,

Updated — Fiber-reinforced composites company Creative Pultrusions Inc. has expanded its custom manufacturing and field services work with the acquisition of Kenway Corp.

CPI, based in Alum Bank, Pa., completed the purchase March 24 and announced it four days later. It did not disclose terms.

Kenway specializes in designing and making composite structures and installing them in the field. It supplies large structures to industries such as marine, coal-fired power, infrastructure, pulp and paper, transportation and renewable energy. Its plant is in Augusta, Maine.

“Field service would be a new opportunity,” said CPI CEO and President Shane Weyant in a phone interview.

Kenway customers installing Kenway equipment such as tanks and vessels will also be candidates to buy CPI's FRP hand rails, guards and other stock items for corrosive environments, Weyant explained.

CPI runs 18 pultrusion lines, which produce profiles of glass-reinforced thermoset resins by continuously pulling the wet composite through a die before curing. CPI uses the lines to make small, intermediate and, especially, large pultruded panels and fiberglass profiles.

A separate building on CPI's campus in Alum Bank houses fiberglass fabrication and CNC machinery. Another building stocks ready-made fiberglass beams, grating, decking, rod and panels for quick order fulfilment. Another facility makes pultrusion tooling and houses advanced fabrication.

“[Kenway's] products and advanced manufacturing techniques are a perfect fit for CPI's strategic focus and growth moving forward with out global composite group,” Weyant added in a news release.

Kenway's attractions for CPI include technologically advanced manufacturing, products that meet exacting service applications and high quality assurance procedures.

CPI is a subsidiary of Hill & Smith Holdings plc of Shirley, England. Hill & Smith designs, manufactures and supplies infrastructure products and galvanizing services from operations in Australia, France, India, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and United States. CPI was established in Alum Bank in 1973.

Kenway President Ian Kopp said his firm has worked repeatedly with CPI as a customer, a vendor and as a competitor.

“When presented with the opportunity to join CPI, as part of Hill & Smith's global composites manufacturing holdings, the decision was easy,” Kopp said in a news release. “They are a company who shares our values, our business philosophy and our vision for the future of the composites industry.”

CPI bought Kenway from the Priest family, which owned the business through three generations. In the early days Kenway built wooden runabout boats but by 1966 it had diversified into FRP products and at that time decided to focus on custom-made industrial FRP products. It now employs about 70. Field services such as installation, repairs, modifications and emergency response account for about half the company's work.

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