STAMFORD, CT. (April 7, 11:45 a.m. EDT) — Packaging manufacturer Silgan Holdings Inc. and two partners announced plans April 6 to create an independent Web portal for end users to contract with packaging suppliers and gain purchasing information over a central site. The owners say they will invest $53 million in the venture.
Silgan, a Stamford, Conn.-based producer of metal cans and blow molded plastic containers, has teamed on the project with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Private Equity in New York and Diamond Technology Partners Inc. in Chicago.
The planned site, www.packtion.com, will be run by an outside company, Chicago-based Packtion Corp., and will be at least partially operating within two months, said Packtion co-president William McLennan.
"The Web offers, for the first time, a set of tools to enable customers to solve their own problems," said McLennan, a former Silgan executive.``It´s all about speed to market, and packaging can be a significant cause of slowness for a customer."
Silgan Plastics Corp., based in Chesterfield, Mo., operates 12 blow molding plants and recorded 1998 sales of $310.9 million, placing it ninth in Plastics News´ ranking last November of North American plastics blow molders. Silgan Holdings reported 1998 global corporate sales of $1.74 billion.
