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VIRGINIA BEACH, VA, April 2, 2024 – Fortis Solutions Group LLC (“Fortis”), a leading provider of high impact printed packaging solutions and a portfolio company of funds managed by Harvest Partners, LP, today announced the acquisition of the Print Division of MASA Corporation (“MASA”) based in Norfolk, Virginia, and its additional Print Division facility in Decatur, Alabama. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

MASA Corporation is a national, full-service provider of custom labels, contract packaging, packaging and equipment supplies serving manufacturers and distributors of food and beverage, wine and spirits, personal care and cosmetics and industrial end markets.

Fortis President and CEO John O. Wynne, Jr. said, “Having known and respected the Fraim family, who founded MASA over 55 years ago, I’m excited about the opportunity for our two companies to join forces. This acquisition enables customers to have the opportunity to choose from our increased range and variety of offerings and solutions. We welcome MASA’s talented employees to Fortis.”

MASA President and CEO Thomas E. Fraim, Jr. commented, “Joining the Fortis team is an important milestone that will undoubtedly bring significant value to MASA’s regional and national clients. MASA and Fortis have long been friendly competitors, so it is very special to see that relationship evolve into an alliance. We look forward to being part of the Fortis team and would like to thank our employees, clients and business partners for making all of this possible.”

Employing over 1,300 employees across twenty-one manufacturing sites, Fortis intends to continue its pursuit of attractive acquisitions to further the breadth of product offerings and locations which can better serve its customer base.

For more information, or to contact a sales representative to learn more about how Fortis can make a difference for you, please call 1-844-FSG-LBLS or visit www.FortisSolutionsGroup.com.

About Fortis Solutions Group

At Fortis Solutions Group, we provide a differentiated approach giving our customers a powerful advantage in the marketplace through industry leading lead times, quality control, color management and solutions-oriented approaches. We deliver a breadth of product offerings utilizing our outstanding flexographic, letterpress, offset and digital printing capabilities. These offerings include pressure sensitive and shrink sleeve labels, multi-ply coupon and flexible packaging printing, extended booklet printing, pouches, folding cartons, label applicators and variable data printing. Headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA, the company also has manufacturing and sales offices in Catoosa, OK, Cordova, TN, Decatur, AL, Ellington, CT, Flowery Branch, GA, High Point, NC, Lewisville, TX, Marietta, GA, Merced, CA, Montgomery, IL, Napa, CA, Norfolk, VA, Novi, MI, Orem, UT, Paso Robles, CA, Placentia, CA, Santa Fe Springs, CA, Somersworth, NH, St-Hubert, Quebec, Canada, and West Chester, OH.

Flexible packaging pouches are no longer an innovative package; they are everywhere! From food to chemicals, pouches are a standard format for packaging. There are many advantages to using flexible packaging pouches: it’s lightweight and easy to transport; it’s simpler to construct than more traditional forms of packaging like glass and metal, which, in turn, reduces the amount of carbon emissions during production; and it provides an excellent canvas for marketing.

As the use of pouches for packaging increases and high-speed pouching equipment becomes the norm, ensuring seal integrity is critical to protecting the product within. The primary goal of packaging is to safeguard the product throughout the supply chain to the consumer. Your packaging supplier should be performing mechanical testing throughout the pouch production process.

Fortis Solutions Group uses equipment that employ vacuum to test for any package leakage and seal integrity for flexible packaging pouches. Throughout the production run, samples are placed in water, and vacuum is employed. As the vacuum pressure grows, bubbles will indicate any poor pouch seal, allowing machine operators to correct seal settings. All our manufacturing locations that produce flexible packaging pouches are equipped with this testing tool and follow standard procedures for vacuum leak testing.

Seal Testing

A second series of testing that occurs during flexible packaging pouch manufacturing is drop testing. Pouches are filled with the exact weight as stated on the package and dropped from a height of 4 feet to simulate what environmental conditions the package may undergo. The package must retain integrity for two drops to indicate that the pouch seals can withstand the distribution system. The drop test is performed throughout the pouch production run.

Both vacuum and drop testing ensure your package provides the protection required throughout the supply chain, enabling it to stand on the shelf and attract consumer’s attention.

Let us know if you have any questions about flexible packaging pouches or how they are tested.

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What They Think recently reported on private equity funding in the packaging sector and focuses on Fortis Solutions Group’s roadmap for growth. 

Check out “The Target Report: Private Equity Feeds Industry Growth – December 2022 M&A Activity” below from What They Think and read more about Fortis’s vision for 2023.

Here is a snippet of the article:

“Fortis Solutions Group is an excellent example of a packaging company that has executed a strategic growth plan with private equity backing. One of the most active private equity-backed roll-ups in the label printing segment, and now with its secondary sponsor, Fortis recently acquired West Coast Labels, located in Placentia, California. This was the sixth acquisition in 2022 by Fortis of a label printing company, building on their “One Fortis” strategy. Investment banker John Wynne started Fortis in 2010 with the purchase of Labels Unlimited, a one-location company in Virginia Beach focused solely on pressure sensitive label production. That was when the country was recovering from the Great Recession. Fortis now has twenty-two manufacturing sites across the US and employs over 1,300 people.”

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VIRGINIA BEACH, VA, December 15, 2022 – Fortis Solutions Group LLC (“Fortis”), a leading provider of high impact printed packaging solutions and a portfolio company of funds managed by Harvest Partners, LP, announced the acquisition of Cinton, Inc. (d/b/a West Coast Labels) based in Placentia, California. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

West Coast Labels is a full-service digital and flexographic printer of pressure sensitive labels serving the food and beverage, health and beauty, nutraceutical, wine and spirits, produce, and industrial end markets.

Fortis President and CEO John O. Wynne, Jr. said, “Over the past 50 years, Sam Scaffide and the West Coast Labels team have established themselves as one of the leading label companies in Southern California. Building on our recent acquisition of Digital Dogma, we are excited to grow our presence in the Los Angeles market and further expand the breadth and depth of capabilities we provide our customers.”

West Coast Labels owner Sam Scaffide commented, “It was an easy decision to entrust our company’s legacy to Fortis, given their track record of taking care of employees, customers, and company reputation.”

Employing over 1,300 employees across twenty-two manufacturing sites, Fortis intends to continue its pursuit of attractive acquisitions to further the breadth of product offerings and locations which can better serve its customer base.

For more information, or to contact a sales representative to learn more about how Fortis can make a difference for you, please call 1-844-FSG-LBLS or visit www.FortisSolutionsGroup.com.

About Fortis Solutions Group

At Fortis Solutions Group, we provide a differentiated approach giving our customers a powerful advantage in the marketplace through industry leading lead times, quality control, color management and solutions-oriented approaches. We deliver a breadth of product offerings utilizing our outstanding flexographic, letterpress, offset and digital printing capabilities. These offerings include pressure sensitive and shrink sleeve labels, multi-ply coupon and flexible packaging printing, extended booklet printing, pouches, folding cartons, label applicators and variable data printing. Headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA, the company also has manufacturing and sales offices in Austin, TX, Catoosa, OK, Ellington, CT, Flowery Branch, GA, High Point, NC, Kansas City, MO, Lewisville, TX, Marietta, GA, Memphis, TN, Merced, CA, Montgomery, IL, Napa, CA, Novi, MI, Orem, UT, Paso Robles, CA, Placentia, CA, Santa Fe Springs, CA, Somersworth, NH, St-Hubert, Quebec, Canada, West Chester, OH, Whitefish, MT and Wixom, MI.

About Harvest Partners, LP

Founded in 1981, Harvest Partners, LP is an established New York-based private equity investment firm that focuses on investments in middle-market companies in the business & industrial services, consumer, healthcare, industrials and software industries. Harvest’s control strategy leverages the firm’s over 40 years of experience in financing organic and acquisition-oriented growth. For more information, please visit www.harvestpartner

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA, October 10, 2022 – Fortis Solutions Group LLC (“Fortis”), a leading provider of high impact printed packaging solutions is pleased to announce the hiring of Steve Powers as its Chief Commercial Officer.

Steve is well known to many at Fortis and the industry as he joins the company from HP Inc. (“HP”). Steve has been in the printing industry for over 30 years both on the manufacturing and supplier sides of the business. For the last ten years, Steve has taken on ever-increasing roles and responsibilities within HP most recently having served as the Sales Director for HP’s Labels and Packaging Segment and the Sales Director for Executive Major Accounts in North America. Prior to HP, Steve was an Account Manager at Heidelberg and a VP of Operations for a Florida-based printing company.

Fortis President and CEO John O. Wynne, Jr. said, “Having worked closely with Steve over the past decade, I am incredibly excited to have someone of his caliber lead our commercial go-to-market Sales and Marketing strategies. Steve is a proven Sales executive who has consistently grown revenue within his areas of responsibility through the cross-selling of products, wallet share gains and new account growth while delivering a superior customer experience. I’m looking forward to working closely with Steve to drive further opportunities for our customers.”

Steve Powers commented, “I am very excited to join Fortis Solutions Group. Having worked with John and his team over the last decade, I have admired what they have been building and the approach they have taken in supporting their customers. I look forward to helping scale the business while continuing to deliver a high level of service to our customers.”

For more information, or to contact a sales representative to learn more about how Fortis can make a difference for you, please call 1-844-FSG-LBLS or visit www.FortisSolutionsGroup.com.

About Fortis Solutions Group

At Fortis Solutions Group, we provide a differentiated approach giving our customers a powerful advantage in the marketplace through industry leading lead times, quality control, color management and solutions-oriented approaches. We deliver a breadth of product offerings utilizing our outstanding flexographic, letterpress, offset and digital printing capabilities. These offerings include pressure sensitive and shrink sleeve labels, multi-ply coupon and flexible packaging printing, extended booklet printing, pouches, folding cartons, label applicators and variable data printing. Headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA, the company also has manufacturing and sales offices in Austin, TX, Catoosa, OK, Ellington, CT, Flowery Branch, GA, High Point, NC, Kansas City, MO, Lewisville, TX, Marietta, GA, Memphis, TN, Merced, CA, Montgomery, IL, Montreal, Canada, Napa, CA, Novi, MI, Orem, UT, Paso Robles, CA, Santa Fe Springs, CA, Somersworth, NH, West Chester, OH, Whitefish, MT and Wixom, MI.

Labels & Labeling Magazine recently interviewed Fortis Solutions Group’s CEO, John Wynne, about our history and growth. Read more about how Fortis has scaled effectively from one plant to over 20, utilizing our talented team members.