Composite Pole Manufacturer Grows Through Acquisition, Boosting Grid Hardening Capabilities for Utilities
Creative Composites Group (CCG), a leading manufacturer of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites, announced that the group has acquired the assets of Schaumburg, Illinois-based Trident Industries (Trident), a manufacturer of ultra-resilient single- and multi-layer composite poles (Figure 1). This marks CCG’s third acquisition in less than two years.
Power demand and storm frequencies are increasing, severely stressing the power grid. Trident specializes in extremely resilient composite poles to meet these challenging requirements while minimizing installation and maintenance time. Setting Trident apart is the strength of its multi-layer pole design. The multi-layer design yields a pole so strong that utilities use it to eliminate the need for guy wires in dead-end and angled applications. Trident multi-layer poles can deliver significant groundline moment capacities with exceptional stiffness.
“Especially our multi-layer poles deliver the strength utilities today need as they go up against nature’s extremes,” said Ted Fotos, Chief Operating Officer of Trident Industries. “In the aftermath of terrible storms, we’ve seen splintered wood poles, but our poles are still standing. Public utilities are beginning to mandate extremely resilient poles, and our Trident pole systems deliver.”
Trident’s poles have an excellent strength-to-weight ratio. They are lighter than steel poles and approximately a third of the weight of wood poles. Poles are available in sizes from 12-inch to 17-inch diameters in both multi-layer and single-layer designs, and every pole is delivered with preinstalled internal ground wire, impact-resistant cap and baseplate, and is predrilled for attachments. The inert composite material also eliminates the risk of harsh preservatives leaching into soil or groundwater, and an excellent dielectric strength helps keep workers and wildlife safer from electrocution. Like all CCG companies’ products, Trident’s products are U.S.-made.
“I’m excited to welcome Trident Industries Team into the Creative Composites Group as we are encouraged to expand CCG’s market reach by increasing our product offering with Trident poles,” said Shane Weyant, chairman and CEO for Creative Composites Group. “We’ve successfully executed an aggressive growth plan over the last two years. The addition of Trident is an important milestone for CCG to continue our journey to expand our overall group with highly engineered systems and solutions into the utility infrastructure sector. Trident will be under the management of our Enduro Composites Team, and Ted Fotos will remain as Group President of Trident. Both Enduro and Trident have a long-standing relationship, which will allow the integration to go very smoothly as we onboard Trident into our CCG Team. Welcome aboard, Trident!”
Trident Industries joins a fast-growing list of CCG’s acquisitions since 2023. CCG acquired Enduro Composites early last year, expanding CCG’s geographic reach in the Western and Southwestern U.S., and building on its portfolio with building panels, cable management systems, and water/wastewater industry products. CCG also acquired United Fiberglass of America in late 2023, bringing its fiberglass pipe, conduit, and bridge drain infrastructure systems into the group.
CCG supplies innovative FRP composite products for major infrastructure markets. The company is advancing the infrastructure market with design-build and manufacturing expertise to provide highly engineered composites systems. The group’s combined team of engineers and technicians has been developing lightweight, durable, cost-effective FRP products for structurally demanding applications and corrosive environments for more than 50 years. CCG is the largest structural composites manufacturer in the U.S.
—POWER edited this content, which was contributed by a public relations firm representing the Creative Composites Group.