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Durakon operates a plant as well as its corporate headquarters at 2101 N. Lapeer Road in Mayfield Township and is a supplier of advanced thermoformed automotive components. Penda also manufactures and markets thermoformed solutions. The new entity will be called Penda Corporation and will be headquartered in Portage, Wis.

Ulf Buergel, president and CEO of Penda, said by conference call that the merger is causing excitement for the companies involved that includes facilities in Portage, Lapeer, and Lerma, Mexico. He did not immediately know if jobs at the Lapeer facility would be affected in terms of gains or losses.

"Both companies have proprietary, state-of-the-art technologies," Buergel said. "The merger will allow us to make these technologies and unique expertise available to customers within our core market, the automotive industry, a well as other target markets. We will structure the company around three market-facing strategic business units to ensure customer focus.

"It's up in the air. We'll look at the opportunities of each of the plants. We have enough capacity for growth forward. The major difficulty is the negative situation in the automotive industry," he said. "We believe combining the companies will create a stronger company. We are extremely excited and are looking forward to (the merger)."

One of those strategic business units, Penda Automotive Components, will serve automotive original equipment manufacturers as a Tier I supplier of thermoformed components such as cargo management systems for the General Motors Avalanche and Honda Ridgeline pickup trucks.

For more than two decades, Durakon's Duraliner¨ has been the most recognized brand in the bedliner business.

Today, Durakon is the world's leading supplier of truck bed protection products. Its bedliners are also manufactured for leading automotive companies including Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Kawasaki and Mazda.

Penda Automotive Accessories will focus on automotive aftermarket products such as pickup truck bedliners, tonneau covers, and other accessories.

The third business unit, Penda Premier Solutions, will serve as a custom thermoform for a variety of industrial applications. Penda's strategic focus for Premier Solutions has been on covers and hoods for lawn and garden, agricultural equipment, and water management applications.

"Penda and Durakon are well known for innovation and high-quality products and that will not change," Buergel said. "We will offer the most cost-effective solutions for any heavy-gauge thermoforming application and will continue to replace metal or fiberglass parts with lightweight, recyclable thermoplastic components."

Buergel said the capabilities of the new company will include: Single- and twin-sheet thermoforming; proprietary composite sandwich technology to manufacture large parts with molded-in-color Class A surface quality; proprietary twin-sheet composite thermoforming technology using aluminum honeycomb to increase strength; and paint film lamination and thermoforming technology for exterior parts.

Penda owner, Resilience Capital Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in Cleveland and Durakon owner, Littlejohn & Co. LLC, a private equity firm headquartered in Greenwich, Conn., will be the shareholders of the combined company.

For more information on Penda, visit its Web site at www.penda.com.