Pelican Products Acquires Minnesota Thermal Science, enhancing its position in cold-chain packaging

Pelican Products (Torrance, CA) hit the biopharma cold chain market in 2012 with cases and other containers based on its longstanding business in providing protective cases for military hardware, electronics and other high-performance needs. Now, the company (owned by the private-equity investor Behman Capital) has acquired Minnesota Thermal Science (MTS; Plymouth, MN), which is a growing player in the cold-chain packaging industry for life sciences.

One of the things that undoubtedly brought the two companies together is that they both have experience in dealing with the Pentagon: MTS was the originator of the “Golden Hour” container for field-ready healthcare products (the phrase refers to the urgency of treating battlefield injuries within the first 60 minutes) used by the Defense Dept. More recently, it has marketed the Credo Cube, said to be a container with the one of the longest in-temperature durations, is reusable, and is equipped with phase-change material (rather than wet or dry ice) for chilling. Pelican’s BPS line of containers feature hardened cases (it also uses phase-change material) and is meant for reusable applications.

But another factor cited by Pelican is that the acquisition brings the market access of MTS in life sciences together with the global footprint of Pelican, which has 10 locations worldwide, as well as an extensive dealer network for its storage products and other lines of business.. “The award-winning thermal protection products of MTS will be matched with Pelican’s global capabilities providing a worldwide solution of re-usable transportation and packaging products and services,” says Lyndon Faulkner, Pelican CEO.