US solder producer Kester has announced its acquisition by Element Solutions Inc (ESI), owner of MacDermid Alpha, effective December 2nd 2019. MacDermid Alpha is already one of the world’s leading solder producers, with global operations headquartered in the US.
The move follows a portfolio review by Kester parent company ITW in late 2018 and will make Kester a part of the MacDermid Alpha business, including the Kester facilities in the US, Germany and Singapore.
Kester was founded in 1899 as the Chicago Solder Company to produce an innovative flux-cored solder. ITW acquired Kester in 2006, and established manufacturing facilities in Singapore (1969) and in Germany (1972) to better service the Asian and European markets.
MacDermid Alpha also has a long history in the solder business, founded in the US in 1870, acquired by Cookson in the 1980s and by ESI in 2015, merging with MacDermid in 2018. The company now operates under a broad platform of electronics materials technologies and is well positioned to integrate this new expansion of its solder business.
Source: https://www.internationaltin.org/macdermid-alpha-acquire-kester-solder/
