Owens Corning (Stafford Road, St Helens, GB-Merseyside WA10 3NS) has acquired the insulation business of Linpac Insulation (Hunter House Industrial Estate, Brenda Road, GB-Hartlepool TS25 2BE). The company has been renamed Owens Corning PolyFoam. The acquisition will add Linpac's "PolyFoam XPS" expanded polystyrene products to the Owens Corning range. These products offer high compressive strength and low water absorption, with a range of high performance speciality applications.

Linpac Insulation Products originally traded as PolyFoam until it became part of the Linpac Group in 1986. It has a plant in Hartlepool and a factory in Spain, near Barcelona and sales offices in Italy and the Netherlands. Linpac decided to sell the business as it did not fit in with its core business in PS packaging.

For Owens Corning the acquisition extends its range of building insulation products as well as moving it into Southern European markets where it is not so well established. Within the building trade the company is primarily known for its range of glass and rock wool insulation products and it is the market leader in the UK for mineral wool insulation. The US-based company had 1995 sales of USD 3.6bn and employs around 18,000 people in more than 30 countries.