One year after Ray Currier founded Currier Plastics in 1982, his son, John, joined the family business.
John Currier has remained there for 42 years. In 1987, he was named president. Under his leadership and with other family members by his side, he led the company through market changes and expanded operations.
Now, Currier is preparing for his next chapter: retirement.
With Sheridan Capital Partners acquiring Currier Plastics and installing Andrew McLean as CEO, Currier will step aside. He will remain an adviser and continue to sit on the company’s board.
“I’m dealing with mixed emotions,” Currier said in an interview with The Citizen. “My dad started this company in ’82. I joined in ’83, so I’m technically second generation, but I feel like first. In my professional career, I’ve really done nothing else.”
Currier Plastics has been sold to a private equity firm, which has named a new CEO.
But with Currier Plastics transitioning to new ownership, Currier acknowledged the business he built — his baby — needed somebody at the helm with more experience in growing companies.
Currier Plastics used injection molding and added blow molding to its repertoire. It grew by making hotel amenity products, and that remained one of its markets.
Within the last decade, though, Currier Plastics shifted to the health care industry.
Making health care products, Currier explained, comes with more stringent regulations, along with more sampling and testing. The company’s brass viewed it as an opportunity to separate from its competitors.
“It was a very strategic move,” Currier said, “but it secured our future. It basically says this is a much more attractive business. It’s a much more secure business.”
He added, “I look at it very personally. This is change. No matter what anybody says, change is difficult. Being able to communicate that change and, over time, people seeing it and adapting it. Now, we look back on it as, ‘That was a no-brainer. That was easy.’It wasn’t at the time, but it really set the path for the future for us.”
Enter Sheridan Capital Partners.
As Currier Plastics changed markets and continued to grow, Currier told The Citizen that they were at “an inflection point.” The company needed to find a partner, he said, that could take it to the next level.
“We needed somebody that had access to capital, because growth takes money, had global experience and a lot of experience in health care,” Currier continued. “As we looked around, we identified Sheridan was the prime candidate. These guys check all the boxes.”
Currier Plastics had meetings with Sheridan’s team — Currier called it “a slow courtship” — and the private equity firm welcomed the growth plans.
The aforementioned boxes that Sheridan checked were “non-negotiable” priorities for Currier Plastics, according to Currier. They wanted to ensure the plastics manufacturer would remain in the Auburn area — its main facility is on Columbus Street in the city and it has another location in Aurelius — and the company’s 220-plus employees would be retained.
“That was very important to us and it didn’t take a lot of convincing with Sheridan,” Currier said. “They came in and said that’s important to us, too.”
Sheridan will look for strategic acquisitions, Currier noted, whether those are domestic or in Europe. The potential acquisitions will benefit the Auburn area, he explained, because it will provide more work for the employees here.
Although Currier will be retiring, the rest of Currier Plastics’ leadership team will remain with the company.
Currier plans to spend more time with his family and work on his golf game. He won’t be leading Currier Plastics, but will continue to track its progress.
“I am extremely excited,” he said. “This is a second family, so the opportunities that the people are going to see are more than we’ve ever seen in the past. I am 100% bought into this is the best thing that could be done for this company right now.”
Government reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on X @RobertHarding.
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