Foam, sheet and compounds manufacturer Vita Group (Luxembourg; www.thevitagroup.com) has sold the compounding business of VTC Franceschetti Elastomeri (Corte France, Brescia / Italy) in a management buyout led by Francesco Franceschetti. The purchase price was not disclosed. The Italian company, which has been a member of Vita’s Thermoplastic Elastomers (TPE) Group since 2005 – see Plasteurope.com of 21.04.2005 – has been renamed Francesco Franceschetti Elastomeri. It is a key supplier of rigid thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) compounds to the local ski boot and footwear markets.

Vita’s TPE businesses now comprise the production operations of VTC Elastoteknik AB (Åmål / Sweden) and Vita Thermoplastic Polymers (UK) (Middleton, Manchester / UK). They will focus on products for their core medical, TPE and thermoplastic vulcanisate (TPV) applications.