Consolidation is continuing in the corrugated packaging sector. Less than a month after Smurfit Kappa acquired Atlas Packaging, fellow Irish business Zeus Packaging has completed a €25 million deal for Swanline and BoxMart.
The deal is the latest in a series for Zeus which has expanded rapidly through acquisition led growth to a company forecasting a turnover of €400 million this year with €500 million in sight.
Last year it acquired Limerick Packaging and before that Smith & Bateson, a materials distributor to retail and warehousing businesses, in Liverpool and VaioPak, Biggleswade, in 2019. It also operates a logistics operation from Biggleswade that was expanded in 2018 and is the site of the UK head office. It has invested £200,000 on a packaging experience centre on the site in April equipped with Epson printer and cutting table.
The company has focused on the supply of materials for packaging, from films to corrugated, tapes to labels, strapping to protective packaging and fill together with associated machinery. It has not focused on printed or specialist packaging, areas that the latest acquisition will bring. It has been able to supply printed labels, carrier bags and notably recyclable disposable cups.
Zeus CEO Keith Ockenden says the new subsidiaries are “very strong players in the UK packaging sector.
“Swanline and BoxMart bring with them long established customer bases, indepth knowledge about their respective sectors, and dedicated diverse teams who are committed to serving their customers. As a combined entity, we have enhanced our reach and offering across the UK, with further opportunity to maximise efficiencies across our distribution and supply chains, while broadening our product and service offerings to our existing customers.”
Swanline bills itself as the UK’s leading trade only supplier of printed corrugated packaging. It was an early adopter of digital printing for corrugated with HP flatbed machines. BoxMart has a focus on design led promotional packaging, with a strong online marketplace reaching smaller retailers and mail order businesses.
“Our creative bespoke packaging services and online shop for stock packaging products will dovetail perfectly with Zeus Packaging’s own range of services and products,” says BoxMart managing director Jo Offord, while colleague Nick Kirby, Swanline CEO, adds: “We’re passionate about sustainability and proud of our plastic-free portfolio of materials. We want to make it clear to all our stakeholders and customers that there will be absolutely no change in how we operate here at Swanline. It will be business as usual.”
Kirby has resigned as a director of Swanline Holdings and Swanline Print though is understood to be staying on to lead the business.
However, he remains a director of Four Create Print, a digital print business in Birmingham that Swanline acquired in 2017 and is not part of the acquisition. Swanline is still listed on the Corrboard website as part of the consortium owning the corrugated sheet producer.
