NEENAH, WIS. (Dec. 2, 12:55 p.m ET) — Packaging giant Bemis Co. Inc. has acquired liner maker Shield Pack LLC for an undisclosed price.
Shield Pack is based in West Monroe, La., where it employs 100 at a 75,000 square-foot plant making high barrier liners for bulk container packaging. The firm has annual sales of about $25 million.
Neenah, Wis.-based Bemis is buying Shield Pack from financial firms Tuckerman Capital of Hanover, N.H., and Pegasus Capital Group of Los Angeles and from Shield Pack CEO George Smith. Shield Pack was founded in 1968 and claims to have created the market for liners for liners for dry application bulk packaging.
Bemis President and CEO Henry Thiesen said in a Dec. 1 news release that buying Shield Pack “expands [Bemis'] reach into new market applications that require barrier packaging.”
Bemis spokesperson Kristive Pavletich said that the two firms had not been competitors. Shield Pack buys film and film laminates based on nylon, EVOH and similar materials and then converts those products into pouches and liners, Pavletich said.
In a separate news release, Shield Pack's Smith said that the sale “allows Bemis to continue and grow a 43-year, long-standing market leadership position…Bemis also secures a strong and rapidly growing position in liquid bulk liners.”
Shield Pack's owners were advised on the transaction by Blaige & Co. of Chicago. Chairman and CEO Thomas Blaige said the deal “brings resources to Shield Pack's expansion initiatives, and provides Bemis with diversification…into intermediate bulk packaging contracts.”
The acquisition is the second of the year for Bemis, a publicly-held firm with sales of $4.8 billion in 2010. In August, the firm acquired Hong Kong-based flexible packaging maker Mayor Packaging Enterprises Ltd. for an undisclosed price. In October, Bemis' Curwood Inc. unit announced it was closing its tape plant in Oshkosh, Wis., eliminating 23 jobs.
Bemis ranked as North America's largest film and sheet maker in a recent Plastics News ranking with related sales estimated at $3.3 billion. The firm employs more than 20,000 worldwide.
In the first nine months of 2011, Bemis reported sales of almost $4.1 billion, up 13 percent from the same period in 2010. Nine-month profit grew five percent to almost $165 million in the same comparison.
On Wall Street, Bemis' per-share stock price began 2011 around $33. It peaked above $34 in July, but was near $29.40 in early trading Dec. 2.
