Sun Capital Partners Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla., is continuing its buying spree in packaging, this time with Exopack Holding Corp. of Spartanburg, S.C.
After the acquisition, announced Oct. 6, Exopack Holding Corp. will include subsidiaries Exopack LLC, Cello-Foil Products Inc. of Battle Creek, Mich., and Packaging Group. of Concord, Ontario.
Sun Capital acquired Packaging Group in September and picked up Cello-Foil in July. Jack Knott, formerly president and chief executive officer of Cello Foil Holding, will become president and CEO of Exopack. Stan Bikulege will stay on as president and CEO of Exopack LLC.
``We've put together quite a new, large, flexible packaging company,'' Knott said by phone. ``It creates a very balanced entity of paper and plastic.''
Sterling Group LP, a private equity firm in Houston, started looking for a buyer for Exopack earlier this year. Exopack extrudes and converts film and shipping sacks.
Cello-Foil has printing and laminating expertise. Exopack is known for creating new technologies including the slide zipper on the multiwall bag. Packaging Group is diversified in the meat, poultry and cheese markets.
Sun officials said the combined firms will benefit from consolidation trends in flexible packaging.
``We believe that the flexible packaging industry has attractive characteristics for further consolidation,'' Michael Kalb, Sun managing director, said in a news release. ``While highly fragmented, the industry is large, approximately $22 billion, and enjoys a growth profile exceeding [gross domestic product].
``There are an estimated 460 flexible packaging manufacturers in North America and the seven largest domestic converters account for about 55 percent of the overall market, Exopack Holding Corp. among them.''
