UTEX Industries was founded in 1940 as Universal Packing and Gasket. It is based in Houston, Texas. In 1964, the company created "the first nonadjustable plunger packing material designed to address recipocrating pump-sealing problems". Made of nitrile rubber and "nylon fabric composite laminated material", it was formed into "packing" named the J-Design 838. In 1969, UP&G was renamed to UTEX Industries. UTEX was originally acquired in August 2005 by Grey Mountain Partners, a private equity firm. They then sold UTEX to Audax Group, a middle-market investment capital firm, in 2007. In December 2010, Utex was acquired by global private equity firm Rhône Group for an undisclosed amount. In March 2013, Utex was acquired by private equity firm Riverstone Holdings LLC for $825 million. In 2013, ratings agency Standard & Poor's assigned UTEX Industries a B corporate credit rating. Moody's found UTEX to be a small company with an inconsiderable scale of operations. It further found that UTEX has "limited end-market and product diversity" and "very aggressive leverage". In 2014, ratings agency Moody's Corporation changed its rating perspective of UTEX from stable to negative owing to UTEX's taking on massive debt. Moody's concluded that the elevated leverage would reduce UTEX's financial adaptability. In 2014, UTEX expanded its manufacturing operations to Singapore after having opened a sales branch there beginning in 2011. In 2014, UTEX had over 600 employees and seven manufacturing plants in the United States, all of which were in Texas, and a manufacturing plant in Northumberland, England.
Acquisitions
In 1994, UTEX acquired Applied Rubber Technology. In 1999, UTEX bought from Corrosion Control Corporation the AccuSeal brand name and polymeric seal division. Utex moved AccuSeal from Lakewood, Colorado to a rented place in Houston close to Utex corporate headquarters. In 2014, Utex created Utex AccuSEal do Brasil Ltda, a Brazilian subsidiary to do business in the oil and gas sector in South America. In 2008, UTEX acquired CAM Speciality Products, which makes urethane products primary in the oil and gas sector. The same year, UTEX acquired DuraQuest, which produces "moulded rubber and drilling shock absorber products" primary in the oil and gas sector. In 2011, UTEX purchased Northumberland seal manufacturer Arefco, which was founded in 1978 and had 58 employees in 2014.
Products
The company and its subsidiaries make a range of sealing products, including gaskets, gasket sheets, high-tech O-rings, molded packings and seals for reciprocating pumps, hydraulics, mechanical seals, braided packings, and custom rubber-molded products. They also offer repairs for mechanical seals. Most of the company's products have short product lifecycles so must be replenished periodically to prevent tools from not working.
