The Riverside Co. has announced its acquisition of BeGreen Packaging LLC, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company that makes environmentally friendly products and packaging for the consumer packaged goods and food service industries.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
BeGreen Packaging, founded in 2007, produces molded fiber products that are compostable, recyclable and tree-free, according to the Cleveland private equity firm's news release. It uses materials including bamboo, wheat straw and sugarcane in its products, which range from simple plates to complex packaging for consumer electronics.
"Sustainability is no longer a luxury," Riverside managing partner Loren Schlachet said in a news release. "Customers and retailers are demanding or requiring green materials, and BeGreen Packaging has a proven track record of meeting that growing demand."
It's a "high-growth industry," noted Riverside partner Joe Lee, and BeGreen Packaging already serves a variety of blue-chip customers in numerous verticals.
BeGreen and its customer, Procter & Gamble Co., won a packaging award in 2011 for a bamboo and bulrush-based molded package for razors.
Riverside aims to help BeGreen Packaging's co-founders, Ron Blitzer and Robert Richman, accelerate growth by investing heavily in U.S. manufacturing, improving sales and marketing, and continuing to invest in research and development, the news release stated.