Denmark-based packaging company Faerch Plast A/S has acquired Ely, United Kingdom-based Anson Packaging Ltd., a move the company says “should be viewed” as part of its growth strategy.
The acquisition, the largest Faerch Plast says it has ever made, comes a year after private equity fund EQT VI acquired the Danish company. Details of the acquisition were not released.
"Faerch Plast has the potential to develop further in Europe and even globally,” said President and CEO Lars Gade Hansen in a news release. “The new ownership has provided us with a platform to take a more aggressive approach to acquisitions. We are therefore delighted that the acquisition is now a reality.
“With Anson Packaging, we will strengthen the Group's position as a leader in the production of high performance packaging solutions for ready meals, fresh meat, and cold foods and snacks.”
Anson is a thermoformer specializing in food-to-go, dairy, bakery and convenience food sectors with annual sales of more than 500 million Danish krone ($72.7 million).
Mark Dujardin, chairman and majority shareholder of the family-owned Anson will join the Faerch board of directors.
Faerch, based in Holstebro, Denmark, is in a three-year investment program.
“We have a continuing ambitious growth strategy, where we actively examine possibilities that can complement Faerch Plast in market, products and factories,” Hansen said. “If we find attractive opportunities, we are ready.”
In 2014 Faerch Plast employed over 500 people across three factories based in Denmark, England and the Czech Republic and had sales offices in the UK and France.