Fortune Brands Innovations agreed to sell Fiberon, the North Carolina maker of composite decking, railing and cladding, to Inteplast Group, a privately held plastics manufacturer based in Livingston, N.J. The deal moves one of the bigger capped-composite decking brands out of a diversified building products company and into a resin and plastics producer. Neither side disclosed a price, and Fiberon’s sales weren’t broken out.
Building Products Digest reported the agreement Oct. 15. Closing is expected within 60 days, subject to customary conditions, and the two companies will run separately until then.
What Inteplast gets in composite decking
Fiberon was founded in 1997 and makes wood-alternative boards using primarily recycled materials. It has manufacturing in New London, N.C., where it’s headquartered, and a site in Meridian, Idaho. Its lines include ArmorGuard, Good Life, Sanctuary, Concordia, Paramount, Promenade and Novus decking, plus railing and cladding.
Inteplast was founded in 1991, says it has more than 10,000 employees and over 100 facilities worldwide, and runs its flagship plant in Lolita, Texas. Fiberon will go into its World-Pak division and the Inteplast Building Products unit, which already sells PVC and polystyrene trim, decking, moulding and garage weatherstrip from four plants. World-Pak president John Stevens said the deal “provides expansion within the decking category with non-wood, capped composites.”
Why a plastics producer wants a decking plant
Composite and PVC decking are, at bottom, polymer products. Owning resin capacity and board extrusion under one roof gives Inteplast more control over the biggest input cost, and it pairs Fiberon’s composite boards with the cellular PVC trim the company already sells through lumberyards. That’s the logic. Whether Inteplast keeps Fiberon’s recycled-content positioning, or leans on virgin resin it already makes, is the open question for specifiers who choose decking partly on recycled content and EPDs.
For Fortune Brands, it’s a narrowing. The company, known for Moen faucets, Therma-Tru doors and Master Lock, gave no reason for the sale in the report. Outdoor living has been one of the softer residential repair-and-remodel categories as big-ticket projects get deferred.
What dealers and contractors should watch
Deck builders and lumber dealers will care about two things after closing: whether Fiberon’s warranty terms and dealer programs carry over unchanged, and whether the New London and Meridian plants keep running at current volume. Ownership changes in building products often bring line rationalization within a year or two.
It’s another sign that distribution and manufacturing in specialty building materials keep consolidating. Weyerhaeuser just picked up U.S. distribution of TimberHP’s wood fiber insulation, and Advanced Drainage Systems is paying $530 million for StormTrap. Fiberon’s buyer, unlike those, makes the plastic that goes into the board.