Constantia Flexibles Group will acquire a majority stake in the Indian film-based laminates producer Creative Polypack Limited. 

 

Founded in 1986, the family-owned Creative Polypack is expected to achieve sales of about €75 million in 2017-2018. The company has about 850 employees at eight production sites in Baddi, Kanpur, Kolkata, Assam and Puducherry, in northern, eastern and southern India.

 

Creative Polypack is India’s fourth largest flexible packaging group, manufacturing film-based flexible packaging for the food and home and personal care (HPC) industries, as well as paper-based soap wrappers. The company serves the leading domestic and international consumer goods companies in India. Creative Polypack’s senior management will remain in their current roles.

 

“Through this acquisition, we will become the third largest flexible packaging company in India - the fastest growing packaging market globally, with double-digit growth rates driven by the megatrend of urbanization and the expansion of the retail sector,” Constantia Flexibles CEO Alexander Baumgartner said. “In addition, we gain a stronger footprint in the HPC market, which complements our existing customer portfolio, while we are now able to cover the whole of the Indian subcontinent with our extensive production footprint.”

 

Constantia Flexibles is already a leading supplier of film-based flexible packaging for the Indian market since acquiring Ahmedabad-based Parikh Packaging in 2013. Parikh is investing millions of euros in a new greenfield site, which will house a polyethylene blown film extruder, a high-definition flexo printing press and laminators that will produce high-barrier laminates that can be fully recycled. The extra capacity will come online in 2019.

 

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks, pending regulatory approvals.