Monofrax in Falconer has been acquired by the French multinational corporation Saint-Gobain. P-J file photo

FALCONER — A Falconer company has a new owner.

Callista Private Equity has exited its entire holding in Monofrax, based in Falconer, to the French multinational corporation Saint-Gobain.

Callista acquired Monofrax LLC in June 2016 from RHI AG. Since then, Callista said in a news release it had worked with local Monofrax officials to successfully turn around Monofrax and bring it back to sustainable profits by 2019. Besides several cost and efficiency measures, the shift from a commodity product provider toward specialty niches were the main driver for the successful restructuring.

William Andrews, Monofrax managing director, told The Post-Journal in 2017 that Callista had a quick impact on the Falconer company, located at 1870 New York Ave., Falconer. Monofrax saw growth in 2017, a turnaround from the uncertainty it faced in early 2016 before it was determined that Monofrax’s former parent company, RHI-AG in Austria, would sell the plant.

Callista officials said in a news release that Monofrax’s realignment positions the Falconer company for a new phase of growth supported by Saint-Gobain within the French company’s ceramics business unit. The acquisition will also accelerate the growth of Saint-Gobain Ceramics in the refractory industry.

“We are very happy to join the Saint-Gobain group that will help us write the next chapter of our long lasting history of innovation and success in the coming years,” Andrews said.

Monofrax offers a wide range of fused cast refractories, including AZS, high Zirconia, alumina and chrome products. Materials are used for glass melting, steel reheat, electrolytic reduction cells for smelting light metals, coal and black liquor gasification and nuclear waste vitrification.

Monofrax has supplied its products to the glass industry worldwide.

Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and services for the construction and industrial markets.

Monofrax is the latest acquisition for Saint-Gobain Ceramics. In 2021, Saint-Gobain completed or signed 37 acquisitions representing almost 2 billion pounds in sales, including mainly Chryso and GCP Applied Technologies, reinforcing its existing positions in construction chemicals with more than 4 billion pounds in sales, and Panofrance, a specialist distributor of timber and panels.

Like-for-like sales at Saint-Gobain increased 18.4% in 2020 and 13.8% in 2019, with the increase accelerating to 15.9% in the second half versus second-half 2019. Saint-Gobain is growing in the Americas, with year-end 2021 financial statements showing a 22.3% organic growth over the year compared to 2020, and 28.3% compared to 2019, with an acceleration in the second half at 31.3% versus the second half of 2019.

“The records achieved in 2021 confirm that the group has entered a new post-transformation trajectory in terms of performance: market-beating sales growth, record earnings and margin, a high level of free cash flow generation that has more than doubled compared to previous years, and strong value creation for our shareholders thanks to strict capital allocation and the determined execution of our portfolio optimization,” said Benoit Bazin, chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain, in a February news release announcing the company’s 2021 year-end financial statements.