Intertape Polymer Group (IPG®) Completes Transaction to Acquire Cantech®

Sonoco announced it has completed the divestiture of its Europe contract packaging business to a subsidiary of Prairie Industries Holdings, a Wisconsin-based contract packaging and contract manufacturing firm backed by The Halifax Group, a Washington, D.C.-based global investment firm, for $120 million in cash. Sonoco’s Europe contract packaging business produced net sales of approximately $300 million in 2019 and provides full-service custom packaging and supply chain management solutions to global consumer product goods companies through six contract packaging facilities in three locations and a warehouse all in Poland. The business has been part of Sonoco’s Display and Packaging segment and has approximately 2,600 employees. The divestiture is part of Sonoco efforts to simplify its operating structure to focus on growing its core Consumer and Industrial packaging businesses.

Smurfit Kappa will invest €54 million to double the capacity of its Ibi Bag-in-Box plant in Alicante, Spain. Smurfit Kappa’s latest investment is set to strengthen the sustainability of both the plant’s operations and its product portfolio, with enhanced waste management systems and significant savings in energy consumption. Bag-in-Box Ibi has got a strong track record when it comes to recycling with several state-of-the-art systems to identify and separate by-products. Saverio Mayer, CEO of Smurfit Kappa Europe, said: “Today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment to the Bag-in-Box division and forms part of our multi-country expansion plan. We have invested €90 million in the Ibi plant throughout the last decade which has significantly enhanced our offering.

The Group's consolidated sales went up to EUR 592.1 million and were thus 1.3 % above the comparative figure of the previous year (1Q 2017: EUR 584.5 million). The slight increase results from both divisions. Operating profit at EUR 57.1 million was 12.8 % or EUR 6.5 million above the previous year’s value (1Q 2017: EUR 50.6 million). A rise at the cartonboard division contrasted with a decline at the packaging division. The Group's operating margin reached 9.6 %, following 8.7 % in the first three months of 2017. Click Read More below for additional information.