Investment giant merges packaging companies into two European hubs

Sun European Partners is combining its existing packaging companies to create two European hubs, one to cover its flexible packaging businesses and another to envelop its rigid packaging businesses.

The flexible packaging group will be called the Britton Group. With an annual turnover of approximately €311m, this division comprises three existing Sun European Partners affiliates; the Britton Group, Reuther Verpackung and Veriplast Solutions,

Based in the UK, the new group has operations across four European countries; UK, France, Germany and Poland.

The rigid divison, known as PACCOR, will be created from the merger of two existing affiliates of Sun European Partners: German-based PACCOR and the rigid packaging division of Veriplast, with annual turnover of approximately €370m.

Located in Germany, the PACCOR arm will have operations across ten European countries including: Germany, Poland, France, UK, Spain, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Netherlands, Finland, and Lithuania.

The newly combined company will continue to be integrated with future rigid packaging acquisitions, said the investment firm.

Acquisitions

One of the many benefits the companies will gain as a result of the merger is access to €1.75bn of capital, said Sun European Partners, will will enable both divisions to invest in future acquisitions, capital expenditure and other growth opportunities, said Lionel de Posson, vice president of the firm.

Other advantages of the move for the merged companies include facility specialisation, in addition to shared technology and research, said Sun European Partners.

“Customers will benefit from the size and scale of the combined businesses, the extensive product offering and the geographic reach,” said Posson.

Supplier relationships will also be deepened as the firms grow to meet the new scale and breadth of the two new groups, said the parent group.

In regards to its expansion plans, a spokesperson for Sun European Partners told FoodProductionDaily it was constantly evaluating acquisitions in this space, but declined to comment further.