History

Tensar Corporation was formed as a Georgia corporation, jointly owned by Gulf Canada Limited, Netlon Limited and Netlon Limited's majority shareholder. A freestanding organisation was built from the ground up in Atlanta to operate and manage the fledgling business.

A 175,000 square foot manufacturing facility was constructed in Morrow, Georgia (just south of Atlanta), based on a significant scale up and re-engineering of prototype process technology previously developed and practiced by Netlon Limited in the United Kingdom. The facility was commissioned in the third quarter, ahead of schedule and below budget, and immediately achieved throughput rates for Tensar® uniaxial and biaxial geogrid products, which had previously been set as 10-year goals.

T. Boone Pickens of Mesa Petroleum initiated a hostile takeover of Gulf Oil Corporation, the parent company of Gulf Canada. Instead of submitting to the hostile takeover, Gulf Oil Corporation subsequently sold the business to a "white knight," Standard Oil of California (which adopted the name Chevron Corporation at the time of the transaction).

To pay down debt associated with the acquisition of Gulf Oil Corporation, Chevron began to sell off various assets. Consequently, Chevron sold a 60% interest in Gulf Canada Limited, a part owner of Tensar, to the Reichmann family through their holding company, Olympia & York. After its sale to Olympia & York, Gulf Canada narrowed its strategic focus to concentrate on petroleum exploration and production. As a result, it began to seek the divestiture of its investment in Tensar.

Novel construction practices were developed by the Company, using Tensar foundation improvement systems and earth retention systems to "piggyback" a new municipal solid waste landfill on top of an existing, full-to-capacity landfill on Long Island, New York. This pioneering achievement redefined land use and regulatory options for meeting future municipal solid waste containment needs in the United States.

The novel practice of using Tensar earth retention systems and foundation improvement systems in large scale landform contour regrading was pioneered by the Company, at the award-winning Ridgegate project in La Jolla, California. This incredibly profitable method of transforming marginal properties into prime real estate was repeated in later years at Marbella, Ritter Ranch, Spanish Hills and several other marquee developments.

Tensar Corporation was purchased from Gulf Canada Limited and Netlon Limited by the joint venture's U.S. senior management team. Business practices, particularly those relating to technology development, market development and employee performance incentives, were aggressively redefined to develop broader, longer term growth opportunities.

Landform contour regrading practices were further enhanced to architecturally customise very sophisticated site improvements at Disney World's Typhoon Lagoon attraction. This extremely economical method for precision "sculpting" of large land masses, to fully satisfy both the aesthetic and structural objectives of a very creative and very demanding owner, was repeated in later years at Disney World's Blizzard Beach and Animal Kingdom attractions and several other marquee developments.

Tensar Earth Technologies, Inc. was formed as a subsidiary of Tensar Corporation, with responsibility for earthwork construction markets with greater engineering service needs. An in-house experienced and specialized engineering department was available to assist customers on request with engineering designs and initial construction assistance.

At the same time, Tensar Polytechnologies, Inc. was formed as a subsidiary of Tensar Corporation, with responsibility for supplying specialty products and applications to the building materials and industrial netting markets.

In litigation with a European competitor, a challenge to the U.S. Tensar "Method" patent was pushed through a United States Federal District Court, a Federal Appeals Court and the United States Supreme Court. The patent was found to be valid, enforceable and infringed. In the end, Tensar Corporation collects substantial monetary damages from the infringer.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers, independently and privately, conducted extensive, full-scale testing of Tensar structural geogrids and their various competitors, including both conventional construction materials and practices and competitive polymeric materials. The government found that Tensar products dramatically outperformed all competitive alternatives, and that several competitive polymeric materials provided little or no improvement over unreinforced structures.

Numerous novel practices were pioneered by the Company in landfill construction in the United States, which gave owner/operators a more economical means to comply with new federal environmental protection regulations ("Subtitle D") on sites compromised by topography, soil conditions, setback requirements and the like – e.g., structural support of steepened inboard slopes on perimeter containment berms, stabilization of protective earth covers over membrane lining systems on steeply sloped surfaces, aesthetic outboard retaining walls functioning as perimeter containment berms in urban areas, etc. These many back-to-back "firsts" subsequently became standard practice in the industry in the United States and elsewhere.

A Tensar foundation improvement system was used to construct a minimum footprint, low environmental impact haul road, in order to access petroleum resources across approximately 100 miles of rain forest in Ecuador.

Reciprocating die "Rical" technology was acquired and successfully commissioned by the Company at its Morrow, Georgia facility, which allowed it to produce high quality, lower cost square-aperture lightweight-oriented nets, primarily for the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) product fabrication and erosion control markets.

The equity interests of the Company were purchased by a financial consortium led by KRG Capital Partners in association with AIG Global Investment Corporation, with Company management retaining a minority interest.

Tensar Corporation purchased Geopier Foundation Company.

Tensar Corporation was named one of the fifty most innovative small businesses in the U.S. by Inc Magazine.

Tensar Corporation purchased North American Green.

The equity interests of the Company were purchased by Arcapita Inc., with management continuing to own a minority interest.

Geopier Foundation Company introduced its new and proprietary Impact™ pier technology in the U.S.

Tensar Corporation acquired Tensar Group Limited in the U.K., combining that business with Tensar Earth Technologies in the U.S. to form the global group of companies known as Tensar International Corporation with manufacturing facilities and technology centers in the U.S., United Kingdom and China.