© Alpla
Alpla has made its largest acquisition ever with the purchase of South African packaging company Boxmore Packaging.
Headquartered in Johannesburg, Boxmore specialises in creating PET bottles, PET pre-forms and closures for drinks bottles. It employs around 1,000 members of staff at nine locations.
All employees and locations are being taken on by Alpla, although it has been decided that the management structure will remain the same. The current board will continue to manage the existing Boxmore business and take on responsibility for the integration of Alpla SA.
Alpla CEO Günther Lehner said: “The African continent is an attractive growth market for us. With the purchase of Boxmore Packaging, we now also have a broad basis for entering the market in South Africa, in addition to our activities with Alpla Taba in North Africa.
“With this acquisition, the biggest in the history of the company, we are taking a significant step towards our targets on the African continent.”
Alpla was drawn to Boxmore’s customer structure, selling in more than 20 African countries as well as Indian Ocean islands.
Boxmore CEO Len Engelbrecht said: “Our combined ambition to prioritise growth in Africa is a very exciting opportunity and one that we’ll be exploring through Boxmore’s current footprint, and existing relationships in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
This deal is the latest in a string of Alpla ventures in Africa. At the end of 2015 it took over an Egyptian production site from plastics company Argo. And last year it strengthened its market presence in North Africa and the Middle East through a joint venture with the Egyptian Taba Group.
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