Coveris Group has sold its rigid packaging business to a private equity firm as part of a strategic move to flexible packaging.
The company announced July 31 that U.S.-based Lindsay Goldberg LLC had acquired Coveris Rigid, for an unspecified amount, and is renaming the group Paccor, returning the operations to an identity it had prior to 2013 when it became part of Coveris.
New York-based Lindsay Goldberg also owns rigid packaging firm Weener Plastics GmbH based in the Netherlands and Austria's Schur Flexibles GmbH.
The move is part of Coveris' realignment strategy, which is targeting high-performance solutions for the food, pet food, medical and pharmaceuticals markets, as well as other growing consumer segments, primarily in Europe.
A leading pan-European plastic packaging business for food and non-food applications, Coveris Rigid has a sales of 560 million euros ($651 million) and has 18 manufacturing sites in Europe and in United States.
The company supplies plastics packaging for blue chip companies and local manufacturers active in the dairy and spreads, processed and fresh food and food service industries.
The divestment follows the $1.32 billion sale of the Coveris Americas business to Canadian packaging firm TC Transcontinental Inc. in April.
At the time, Coveris said the divestment of the Americas business would help it focus on operations in Europe, where it is a leading player in flexible packaging. Now the sale of the rigids business furthers that concentration.
"The sale of rigid that follows our recent divestment in the Americas is an important and successful milestone in our strategy to transform Coveris into a European champion for flexible plastic and paper-based packaging solutions," said Coveris CEO Jakob Mosser in a news release.
The rigid packaging business has both injection molding and thermoforming along with decorative technologies. It has 3,500 employees.
"We are very pleased to have Lindsay Goldberg as our new partner," said Coveris Rigid CEO Dieter Bergner. "Lindsay Goldberg's packaging expertise and its global network will allow Coveris Rigid to continue its development into a preferred supplier for innovative packing solutions with an international footprint."
