Performance fibers' big future: making acquisitions a priority.(companies)(Company Profile)

Greg Rogowski, CEO of industrial fiber maker Performance Fibers (Colonial Heights, VA), says the company has surprised its customers and competitors over the last year by making several acquisitions and investments in rapid succession--a big change from its days as a business unit of Honeywell. The $400-million/year unit was acquired from Honeywell by private equity firm Sun Capital Partners (Boca Raton, FL) in December 2004, and Rogowski and his small management team were given full control of his company's growth strategies.

Performance Fibers makes high-tenacity polyester fiber and other materials used in automobile tire reinforcement, engineered reinforcements, and woven fabrics and ropes. The company has spent the last 10 months overhauling its internal operations, including replacing legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with SAP's ERP …