Jeff Ott, president and CEO of Archbold, Ohio-based Bil-Jax, Inc. announced last month that a partnership of Bil-Jax management and Indianapolis-based Centerfield Capital acquired the company from its German-based parent plettac AG, effective December 12, 2003. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The company is now more financially and strategically poised to expand its product offerings and focus even more on supporting its customers, company officials said.

The Bil-Jax management-led buyout team includes president and CEO Jeff Ott, vice president of sales and marketing Chuck Hutchinson, vice president of Finance Tom Truesdale, engineering manager Dave Brinegar and director of purchasing Steve Fryman along with the investment firm of Indianapolis, Ind.-based Centerfield Capital. Bil-Jax employs more than 200 people at its 325,000 square-foot manufacturing facility and headquarters in Archbold, Ohio.

“With the conclusion of this management buyout after a two-year process, we are excited to now serve our customers with the focus and benefits that comes from a management with a financially vested interest in the company,” said Ott.

Bil-Jax's former parent company plettac AG, was forced into bankruptcy in 2003 due to very difficult economic conditions in Germany and throughout Europe. Although Bil-Jax, an Ohio Corporation, had its own independent capital structure under plettac, the pressure to grow in a difficult economy had been intense since it was one of the few self-supporting companies under the plettac umbrella.