Portage, IN, May 2019

HCI Equity Partners (“HCI”) today announced a recapitalization of Manufacturing Solutions International (“MSI”). MSI has joined forces with HCI portfolio company Express Packaging to meaningfully expand its capabilities and presence in contract packaging and contract manufacturing primarily to human food and pet food markets.

Headquartered in Portage, Indiana, MSI serves leading national brands with a wide breadth of contract packaging services, such as pouching/bagging, stand-up pouching, filling, lidding, bundle wrapping, flow wrapping, blister carding, shrink wrapping, inspections, mixing, kitting, display building, and canister sealing, among others. It also provides a range of contract manufacturing services, including dry and liquid blending of ingredients, heat pasteurization, and batching, among others. Finally, it offers warehousing, distribution, and fulfillment services. MSI is SQF Level 3 certified, as is Express Packaging.

MSI founder Charles Weinberg stated, “We are very excited to partner with Express Packaging and HCI, and we look forward to continually expanding our service offering to better serve our customers.” Charles is now CEO of the combined organization, and MSI co-founder Tom Donnelly is CFO. Both now also serve as board members. Express founder Fred Hartzler, who remains active as a sales leader and a board member, noted, “We are thrilled to partner with a company of MSI’s caliber. Our organizations fit very well from a cultural, organizational, and capability standpoint.” Doug McCormick, Managing Partner at HCI, stated, “MSI is highly complementary to Express in a variety of ways—with respect to team, customer base, service capabilities, systems, and processes. It deepens the platform’s ability to be a strategic partner to its customers.”