McNeil Akron (96 East Crosler Street, Akron, Ohio) has sold its French plastics and rubber extrusion subsidiary McNeil Akron Repiquet (43 bis, rue du Commandant Rolland, F-93350 Le Bourget) to US competitor Davis Standard (DS, One Extrusion Drive, Pawcatuk, Connecticut). DS has expanded its business rapidly in recent years, both internally and through acquisition. In 1994 it bought Egan Machinery from John Brown and NRM from McNeil Akron. With the takeover of Repiquet, which is specialised in manufacturing equipment for plastic pipes, profiles and sheets, as well as rubber extrusion, the US group acquires its first manufacturing site in continental Europe – at Dannemarie, France, near the German and Swiss borders.

While Repiquet's activities up to now have been focused on France, DS has begun transforming the Dannemarie site into a broader manufacturing operation targeting all of Europe. First moves were to introduce advanced manufacturing techniques and to improve extruder and control technology. In the medium to long term, DS will add manufacturing facilities for other types of equipment, based on Repiquet's existing palette, but also including a broad range of its own extruders. The group will maintain a sales, engineering and service office in the Paris area, to complement an existing UK setup.