Integrated Packaging buys Amcor’s Perth flex-pack plant

-- Converting Magazine, 6/12/2008

Australian packaging giant Amcor, Ltd. (www.amcor.com) will sell its Perth-based, flexible-packaging converter plant to industry peer Integrated Packaging for US$33.3 million. The Western Australian Amcor facility produces industrial stretch-wrap film for the domestic and New Zealand markets.

“Amcor's strategy in flexible packaging is to focus on the higher value-add segments of the food and healthcare markets," Amcor chief executive Ken MacKenzie says. “This plant was not aligned to the remainder of the flexibles business as it was the only Amcor site that produced industrial stretchwrap."

In 2005, bottle and boxmaker Amcor began a three-year turnaround plan, including the closure of plants and a divestment program. The sale of the Perth facility to Integrated Packaging follows Amcor's announcement in April that it will sell two of its European packaging plants as part of a restructuring there.

Earlier this year, Amcor announced that it would build a new US$380 million paper-recycling plant at Botany in Sydney.