Accent Equity backs management group in creation of Flextrus – a new packaging company with focus on sustainable solutions
4/14/2008 2:08 AM EST
The Accent Equity 2008 investment fund, together with the company’s management, is creating a new packaging company named Flextrus. This is being done by acquiring the business from the Australian group Amcor Flexibles, including assets and plants. The company’s operations in Lund (Sweden) and Somerset (UK) are included in the transfer. The product range mainly consists of flexible packaging products for e.g. the food industry. The total turnover of the combined business amounts to about €85 million, and the company has 250 employees.
Flextrus develops, produces and markets flexible extruded materials that meet highest standard requirements from customers in food manufacturing and other demanding technical applications. The raw materials used include paper and cartonboard as well as different plastics combined into complex, but resource-optimized products. The business, with plants in Lund and Somerset, has been owned since 2001 by the Australian packaging company Amcor Flexibles.
Flextrus’ most important market area is Northern Europe, including the UK. Most customers are in the food industry, but manufacturers of other demanding applications are also important customers.
“The market for environmentally responsible packaging is large and growing,” says Jan Ohlsson, CEO of Accent Equity Partners, who acts as advisors to Accent Equity 2008. A Flextrus that can stand on its two legs, with its own sales organization and local service orientation, has great opportunities to both grow with existing customers and create new customer relationships.”
The deal will make the former management at Amcor Flexible’s plants in Sweden and the UK owners of a considerable portion of the new Flextrus.
“We look forward to taking our business to a higher level, together with Accent,” says Per Nyström, CEO of Flextrus. “We have had a circle of well-established customers for many years in our two factories in Sweden and the UK. Now that we are creating our own development and sales organisation, we will be able to offer existing and new customers specific solutions to their advanced needs in a more effective and focused way.