Melbourne-based packaging company Amcor Ltd. will sell two of its European flexible packaging plants to a Swedish private equity group.
John Murray , Amcor executive general manager of corporate affairs, said the plants in Lund, Sweden, and Somerset, England, manufacture multilayer extruded PET for meat and fish packaging. Amcor is selling the plants because it wants to rationalize its flexible operations in Western and southern Europe, where labor, transport and add-on costs are lower, he said.
``We looked at the various market segments and decided which ones we thought were strong and which ones we wanted to keep,'' he said.
Murray said the sale price to Accent Equity 2008 of Stockholm is confidential.
The plants employ 250 and have a combined annual sales of 85 million euros ($135 million), according to an Accent Equity 2008 statement.
The acquisition will strengthen Accent Equity 2008's market position in northern Europe, said Jan Ohlsson, chief executive officer of Stockholm-based Accent Equity Partners, which advises Accent Equity 2008 and other company funds.
The two plants will form a new packaging company called Flextrus, Ohlsson said.
``The market for environmentally responsible packaging is large and growing. Flextrus can stand on its own two legs, with its own sales organization, and local service orientation, and has great opportunities to grow with existing customers and create new customer relationships,'' he said.
Murray said Amcor's restructuring of its flexible packaging businesses will deliver a pretax profit of 30 million euros ($48 million) a year, at an estimated total cost of 60 million euros ($95 million). Amcor owns 32 flexible packaging plants across 15 European countries, employing about 4,500.
