C.R. Laurence Buys Sommer & Maca

Los Angeles-based CRL, a supplier to the glazing, architectural, construction, industrial, and automotive industries, will incorporate Somaca’s products into its line, including glass machinery and stone tooling.
On CRL’s Website, Donald E. Friese, CRL’s chairman/CEO, calle the deal a “perfect fit,” providing more products and services through CRL’s 20 distribution facilities.
“We’re a niche industry,” he said. “We all know each other, and in our community, we’re not like other large companies. We take care of each other and try to make our industry better. That’s what we’re trying to do here with this deal.”
Friese called the Somaca purchase “one of our largest acquisitions,” and noted that Somaca has “a great reputation” in the glass industry. Dick Carroll, former Somaca president, will head up CRL’s glass-machinery division as president.
“Sommer & Maca and C.R. Laurence have had a very friendly relationship, and we’ve talked about the possibility … for 15 or 20 years,” Friese said “They even thought of buying us at one time. We just said, ‘when the time is right.’ And we realized that now the time was right.”
Friese said that CRL would consolidate five of Somaca’s six distribution facilities into CRL’s. Somaca’s 90,000 ft² Cicero location will be upgraded and expanded for CRL’s manufacturing division.
CRL will continue to offer Somaca’s stone-related products.
“This is an opportunity for us to learn about Somaca’s business and bring it into ours,” Friese noted in a statement announcing the acquisition.” We are a strong team and will work well together. We are proud to have many talented and experienced Somaca employees join our company. The best part of any acquisition is the opportunity to bring more talented people into our operations to help us grow our business and better serve our customers.”
All of Somaca’s item stock numbers have been added to CRL’s ordering system, so items can be ordered from Somaca’s current catalog through CRL, including online at crlaurence.com.