The second bet on less plastic

In November 2021, Eytan Tigay put his name to Rhône's announcement that it was buying Paragon Films.

On October 13, 2026, his new firm announced it was buying the company from Rhône for approximately $900 million. Paragon will be Atlantic Ridge Capital's first investment, alongside Grafine Partners and management. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to customary conditions. 2021 announcement; new agreement.

The product is plastic wrap. The proposition is to make customers need less of it.

Paragon manufactures the stretch film that holds goods together on pallets during storage and transport. It is easy to imagine this as a business where the cheapest pound of plastic wins.

That is precisely the comparison Paragon wants customers to stop making.

In a company-published comparison, Paragon tested its Nexus film against another film on a semi-automatic pallet wrapper. The recorded film weight fell from 4.6 ounces to 3.5 ounces per pallet. Measured load-holding force rose from 29 pounds to 44 pounds.

Roughly a quarter less film, with more holding force in that test. The customer and test date are not identified, and Paragon cautions that the result does not represent every competing product or application. It is evidence of a particular demonstration, not an audited result across customers. Test setup and results.

But the economics are easy to follow. A film can be more expensive per pound and still cost less per wrapped pallet if the customer needs sufficiently fewer pounds. Protecting the load remains essential; saving on film is a poor bargain if the shipment arrives damaged.

Paragon is asking procurement to buy performance rather than weight. That creates room for a negotiation in which the supplier gets paid for engineering and the customer still spends less.

There is another person who needs to like that arrangement: the distributor selling the film.

In a July 2017 profile, CEO Darin Tang described choosing distributors willing to invest in demonstrating performance. He said their representatives could typically earn more selling Paragon while showing savings to the end user. That was management's account, but it identifies the commercial mechanism: give the person explaining the product an economic reason to explain it. Contemporaneous profile.

A thinner film does not sell itself. Someone has to get it onto the customer's wrapper and make the comparison visible.

Rhône says organic profits grew by more than 50% during its ownership and margins expanded significantly. It has not disclosed the profit measure or a breakdown separating volume, product mix, resin costs and pricing. That limits how precisely we can explain the gain. Seller's announcement, syndicated by Business Wire.

The investments are easier to see.

In 2023, Paragon broke ground on a 70,000-square-foot warehouse expansion in North Carolina. Tang said the extra warehouse space would allow the plant to increase manufacturing capacity. In August 2025, according to Rhône, Paragon acquired Mexico's Xpack Films, adding shrink film and an international manufacturing foothold. Expansion record; acquisition history.

Those moves extended where Paragon could manufacture and what it could sell. They fit a business expanding around an established product advantage. They don't tell us how much of the reported organic growth came from better products, busier production lines or a favorable gap between resin costs and selling prices. The acquired business also needs to be kept separate from the organic claim.

The distinction matters because this sales model was already visible in 2017. Rhône bought an engine that was running. Its contribution was to support its next expansion, not invent the idea of using less film.

Now Tigay is returning through a new firm, with Tang still leading the company. Atlantic Ridge plans further product development, new categories and acquisitions that take Paragon's technology into more geographies. Buyer's plans.

The opportunity has a specific shape: bring the film to another customer, demonstrate it on that customer's equipment, and earn part of the saving. Repeat across more applications and markets. Every step still has to pay for the materials, manufacturing and technical selling required to deliver it.

That is a more demanding growth plan than adding capacity and waiting for orders. The distributor needs a reason to make the demonstration. The customer needs a reason to change what goes on the wrapper. And the film has to keep the goods together after the sales team leaves.

When those interests line up, the customer can buy less material, the distributor can earn more for solving the problem, and the manufacturer can compete on something better than the price of resin.

That is the attraction of Paragon's model—and the work the next owner has to extend.

The sale starts with a $900 million agreement. The business starts with a pallet that needs 3.5 ounces of film instead of 4.6, and someone who can show the customer why that matters.

If you have paid time left on an individual Granola plan, we'll match it with a Wispr Flow subscription that includes Notetaker and dictation, and add bonus time, up to 12 months total. Sign in or create a Wispr account and submit proof of your plan to check eligibility.

Try Notetaker Free