Sea Link International, a portfolio company of private equity firm New Water Capital, has acquired Hicks Plastics Company, a leading Tier II provider of injection moulded and metallised automotive forward lighting components. Hicks Plastics is headquartered in Macomb, Michigan, near Detroit, with a secondary facility located in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The acquisition, which represents the fourth addition to New Water Capital’s automotive lighting platform, further bolsters Sea Link’s domestic manufacturing and assembly capabilities and will allow Sea Link to better serve its customers across the automotive spectrum. “Hicks’ technical acumen and its long-standing reputation for quality and customer service, combined with its manufacturing footprint ideally located in the automotive hubs of Michigan and Tennessee, make it a perfect fit for our growing lighting platform,” said New Water Capital partner Brian McGee.
Tim Hicks, a second-generation owner of Hicks Plastics, will join Sea Link as a vice president, while continuing to serve as president of Hicks Plastics and oversee its day-to-day operations. Hicks’ operations will be unaffected and will continue to deliver the highest level of quality and service its customers have come to expect.
“We are pleased to announce our partnership with Sea Link and are very excited about this new phase of our company’s evolution,” says Hicks. “We look forward to continuing to support Hicks’ longstanding customers and believe this combination with Sea Link will allow us to better serve them in all facets of their operations.”
“The addition of Hicks Plastics to our automotive lighting platform will allow us to further integrate Sea Link’s in-house manufacturing and assembly capabilities,” says Sea Link President and CEO Eric Showalter. “This important acquisition will give us increased flexibility and capacity to respond quickly and nimbly to changing market, political and economic conditions.”
New Water Capital first invested in the automotive lighting design and manufacturing sector with the recapitalisation of Sea Link International, a leading provider of design support and manufacturer of high-precision automotive lighting components servicing global Tier 1 and OEM customers, in March 2016. Myotek Industries, a leading Tier 1 OEM transportation LED lighting designer, manufacturer and supplier, was added to New Water’s portfolio in October 2017. In November 2018, Sea Link acquired Amptech Inc, a leading value-added manufacturer of electronics and electrical assemblies based in Manistee, Michigan.
Hicks Plastics was represented in the transaction by MBS Advisors of Florence, Massachusetts.
