MFG makes waves with acquisitions
MFG Chemical has built up a formidable range of capabilities. We spoke with some of its leaders
Recent years have seen considerable change for MFG Chemical in the water treatment space. Having previously acquired Radical Polymers and Masters Company, the company itself changed owners at the end of 2025 and most recently, in August 2026, acquired AP Tech. All this, the company said at the time,“ positions [ MFG ] as a leading provider of strong proprietary products for wide-ranging water treatment needs”.
Based in Ohio, AP Tech had pioneered the use of solid water treatment chemistry as an alternative to traditional liquid products in industrial water treatment since being founded by Jim Heimert in 1999. MFG’ s rationale for buying it was in many ways quite similar to the previous acquisitions.
Paul Turgeon, CEO of MFG, says that AP Tech has perfected solid chemistry for cooling systems. Its products integrate anti-scalants, corrosion inhibitors, surfactants and other ingredients in ways that match liquid products in terms of flow.
“ AP Tech also has its own proprietary chemistry and feed systems, using tag polymers, which are a smart way of tracing product treatment levels in process water,” Turgeon says.“ It ticked all the boxes for us: less OSHA risk, reliable feeding, lower transport costs and more, while expanding our product range and geographic footprint.”
The company was also a good fit with MFG, he adds, as it sold its products only to service companies, not direct to market. There was some overlap in the customer base. Their different capabilities enable them
Mike Standish( far left) and Paul Turgeon( centre) among the MFG leadership team
to deliver the best-fit chemistry for each unique application; MFG itself had hitherto been focused on liquid formulations, with particular expertise in maleic chemistry.
Organisational fit
Mike Standish, VP in charge of MFG Water Technologies, adds:“ The team at AP Tech is very experienced in water treatment and had built out a very similar organisation based on a high-contact customer model with exceptional technical support, so as to be a problem solver for water treatment service companies.”
Turgeon and Standish have known each other professionally for about 40 years. The former moved through BASF, FMC, Chemtura and BWA Water Additives, while the latter worked at ICI and National Starch before founding Radical Polymers, a specialist in antiscalants and corrosion inhibitors. MFG acquired Radical in July 2022.
“ Mike was a technical and commercial lead who understood the developing trends in the market from an application point of view,” Turgeon says.“ Radical’ s sweet spot was putting together and patenting polymers that addressed those needs. A lot of our new technologies came from this acquisition.”
MFG then acquired Illinois-based Masters and its LiquiLogic division in October 2024. Masters specialises in ultra-concentrated liquids and other difficult-to-formulate products, plus blended products, custom manufacturing, analytical services, test kits and reagents. It also offers bespoke testing systems and feed systems that help industrial water treatment service company customers to save money by reducing the amount of product needed.
“ Masters was a great bolt-on acquisition because some industrial water treatment service companies of our customers prefer not to do all of their formulation work in-house,”
44 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981