EDI: Restructuring of EDI
Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank today assumed ownership of the flat-die business of EDI in a transaction that ’substantially’ reduced EDI’s debt load and set the stage for expansion of its strategic investment program, according to EDI president and CEO Timothy C. Callahan.
EDI is a leading international supplier of dies and feedblocks used by plastics extrusion processors and web converters. Under the new legal name Extrusion Dies Industries LLC, EDI will continue to operate with its existing management and staff. In taking over the business from Butler Capital Corp. of New York City, U.S. Bank restructured debt stemming from a 1998 recapitalization, reducing the debt load by about half, according to Callahan.
‘It can only be good news for our employees and our customers that EDI now enjoys the support of a leading American bank that recognizes the ongoing value of our business and is fully committed to its growth,’ Callahan said. ‘We look forward to working with U.S. Bank to build on an enterprise that has maintained a positive cash flow even under the difficult credit arrangement and weak market conditions of recent years. In fact, we have already begun re-hiring skilled people in reaction to recent market demand.’
The restructuring will also enable EDI to accelerate an ongoing strategic program to establish regional service centers to provide international customers with sales, technical, and die-remanufacturing support, Callahan said. Such centers already operate in the United Kingdom, central Europe, and Japan.
Based in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, U.S.A., EDI employs 170 people there and at a subsidiary in England, Extrusion Dies UK. Through a worldwide network of agents, it sells half of its dies outside the United States. EDI was founded in 1972 and was acquired by Butler Capital Corp. in 1991.