After nearly 50 years, Don Fisher is selling his namesake flexible packaging business to a well-known financial firm along with a packaging executive and management.
Morgan Stanley Capital Partners is joining with packaging executive Kevin Keneally and current management at Fisher Container Corp. to acquire the firm.
Fisher Container prints and converts pouches, bags and films in Buffalo Grove, Ill. The company's products are used primarily in clean room, food and industrial end markets, Morgan Stanley said.
“I am very proud of our family business and have taken great care to find the best partner to take it forward,” Don Fisher said in a statement. “I have come to know the MSCP team well and am confident that they bring the skills, capabilities, and approach necessary to build and expand on our success.”
Keneally will succeed Fisher as CEO, who is retiring. Keneally was CEO of film maker Optimum Plastics when the company was acquired by Charter NEX in 2015.
“Fisher Container has a tremendous history and first-class reputation in the marketplace,” Keneally said in a statement. “We are proud of the accomplishments of the Fisher family and expect the new partnership to deliver significant value as we build upon an already strong foundation. Our goal is to expand Fisher's services and capabilities.”
Morgan Stanley Capital Partners indicated the investment is the culmination of a years-long review of the packaging business. “We believe the company is primed for outsized growth,” said Managing Director Mark Bye in a statement.
The investment company has what Managing Director Eric Kanter describes as “a long history of working with differentiated founder-owner companies that have a strong culture.”
The company includes three generations of the Fisher family, according to the company's website. That includes Don Fisher's sons Michael and Brad. Michael Fisher is president and has been with the company since 1977. Brad Fisher is vice president of sales and marketing and has been with the company since 1999.