Constantia Flexibles Group has agreed to acquire a majority shareholding in the Indian film-based laminates producer Creative Polypack Limited. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed and the transaction is expected to be completed in the coming weeks, pending regulatory approvals.
Creative Polypack Limited is family owned and was founded in 1986. It is expected to achieve sales of about EUR 75 million (approximately Rs. 585 crore) in the financial year 2017-2018 and currently 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’s senior management will remain in their current roles, according to the Constantia press release.
Alexander Baumgartner, chief executive officer of Constantia Flexibles says, “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 urbanization and the expansion of the retail sector. 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.”
This is Constantia Flexibles Group’s second acquisition in India after Parikh Packaging, which the Austrian flexible packaging major acquired in 2013. Parikh Packaging’s manufacturing plant is located near Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat. Parikh’s new greenfield plant will be coming up close to its current plant. Parikh is investing Rs 100 crore in the new greenfield site, which will be home to a polyethylene blown film extruder, high-definition flexo printing press and laminators that will produce high barrier laminates that can be fully recycled. The extra capacity will come on stream in 2019.
Talking exclusively to Packaging South Asia, Pavan Parikh, managing director and vice president, Parikh Packaging, a part of Constantia Flexibles Group, said that initially the two entities—Constantia Parikh and Constantia Creative—will function as two separate units.
“To begin with, both Constantia Parikh and Constantia Creative will be identfied separately under the larger Constantia Flexibles Group. The current senior management of Creative Polypack will remain in place. However, both Constantia Parikh and Constantia Creative will work very closely together from now on. If the two entities will be merged in the future, that is for the Group to decide,” Parikh says. The combined sales of Constantia Parikh and Constantia Creative will be about EUR 110 million for the financial year 2017-2018, Parikh informs.
Echoing Baumgartner’s sentiment, Parikh states that acquisition of Creative will help Constantia Flexibles Group enlarge its Indian footprint. “Now with this Constantia Flexibles Group will have pan-India reach and will be closer to its customers. This will help the company to be more competitive,” Parikh shares.
Constantia Flexibles is the world’s fourth largest producer of flexible packaging. Based on the guiding principle of ‘People, Passion, Packaging,’ some 7,200 employees manufacture tailor-made packaging solutions at 32 sites in 18 countries. Many international companies and local market leaders from the food and pharma industries choose the sustainable and innovative products of Constantia Flexibles.
