Spain’s Alzamora carton print group has acquired Offset Print & Packaging from Aylesford near Maidstone.
The deal brings together businesses that have worked together and share the same cultural outlook of independence and service to customers. Offset Print & Packaging is well invested having installed a Koenig & Bauer Rapida 145 at the the end of 2022. Alzamora has this year installed a Speedmaster XL106-7 with twin coater at the main plant at Girona near Barcelona and a six-colour CX104 at the Novotipo factory in Portugal.
Alzamora has used its strength in the Iberian peninsula to service customers across Europe and into North Africa and to Brazil. “With the incorporation of Offset Print & Packaging, we take a big step in our internationalisation strategy,” says Ferran Berga who become UK director. “Together we combine our strengths to offer solutions that are better adapted to the needs of every market.”
Berga is joined on the Offset Print & Packaging board by group CEO Anna Alzamora and Josep Berga.
The sale enables Hugh Jarvis, now 76, to step away from the business completely, and protects the UK operation in a way that a sale to a multinational group might have jeopardised. Vince Brearey, general manager and head of operations, and Ed Bone, head of sales, are remaining with the business.
Brearey says: “Becoming part of Alzamora is a crucial step for Offset. This collaboration will allow us to benefit from extensive operational synergies, strengthen our capabilities to customers and continue to grow in a competitive and globalised environment.”
Alzamora has been a customer to Offset Print & Packaging in recent years as drinks companies have wanted to replace plastic can ties and shrink wraps with a sustainable alternative. The UK company has printed to meet local demand for the no glue, no tape fully cardboard alternative that Alzamora has developed and patented.
The combined businesses will have 300 staff and sales reaching €80 million. Alzamora believes that operational efficiencies can be optimised between the three plants.
