Bemis Co. Inc. is expanding its Asia-Pacific holding with the purchase of Foshan New Changsheng Plastics Films Co. (NCS), a specialty film manufacturer in Foshan, China.
Neenah, Wis.-based Bemis announced the deal on July 1.
Details of the deal were not immediately available at the sellers' request, but more information will be released later this month in conjunction with Bemis's earnings statement, said Vice President and Treasurer Melanie Miller. The purchase is not expected to impact Bemis' earnings per share guidance for 2013, according to the company.
“NCS has strong customer relationships and expertise in specialty film manufacturing for food packaging, personal care packaging, consumer electronics and specialty applications,” said Henry Theisen, Bemis president and CEO in a news release. “Their newly expanded manufacturing facilities will also be capable of manufacturing film for sensitive medical device and pharmaceutical applications. With this new specialty film platform, we are well positioned to increase our market position in the Asia-Pacific region.”
The NCS purchase is far from the first Chinese venture for Bemis, Miller said.
“We have been producing medical device packaging out of Malaysia and Suzhou, China for many, many years,” she said. In addition to holdings in New Zealand and Australia, Bemis acquired a China-based packaging converting facility in 2011. That facility was already a film customer of NCS's, Miller said.
“That's been a great. Before that we weren't really in food packaging in China,” Miller said. “This is a complement to and in support of our existing Pacific operations. They produce a lot of unique films and we're very excited about this acquisition because it's our first film platform in the Asia-Pacific region.”
Bemis, founded in 1858, is North America's largest film and sheet manufacturer with annual sales of $5.3 billion, according to the most recent Plastics News ranking.