Schur Flexibles Group (SF) has reached a general agreement with the French family-owned company UNI Packaging and has entered into exclusive negotiations regarding a potential acquisition of the company. With the planned acquisition, Schur Flexibles intends to strengthen its leading market position in Europe.
Headquartered in Averdoingt, France, UNI Packaging has a network of seven production sites and five logistics hubs – predominantly based in France, the UK and Austria - and European sales offices.
Michael Schernthaner, Managing Director of Schur Flexibles Group, said: “UNI Packaging would perfectly complement and enhance our business portfolio. It is an established player which keeps breaking new ground. With our combined businesses based on a balanced geographic footprint, leading technology and high quality products, we would shape the future of the packaging industry.”
Franck Caresmel, a UNI Packaging bord member, added: “The flexible packaging market is characterized by fast technical developments and increasing customer expectations. As part of the Schur Flexibles Group, we would be even better prepared to face these challenges, with the ability to leverage our combined experiences and our different areas of expertise advantageously.”
UNI Packaging annually invests over EUR 2m into research and development, as well as the innovation and development of existing products and processes. This strong focus on innovation has made the company into a technological leader with the ability to satisfy clients’ needs and anticipate market developments. UNI Packaging is a major player in digital printing for flexible packaging in Europe, which is the ideal technology for ultra-short runs with no upfront costs. Schur Flexibles plans to benefit from UNI Packaging’s proven know-how in this area and aims to access the digital printing technology.
The planned acquisition would additionally add scale to Schur Flexibles’ operations and would improve profitability. Given UNI Packaging’s extensive knowledge and experience in packaging dairy and fresh food products, the planned acquisition would help Schur Flexibles to expand its footprint in both the fast-growing cheese & dairy and in the fresh food & convenience markets. The Caresmel family would take an important role for the combined group’s cheese & dairy as well as fresh food & convenience business.
Regionally, the planned combination would support Schur Flexibles’ foothold in France and the UK. Schur Flexibles intends to leverage UNI Packaging’s strong market position for pouches, which are increasingly acting as substitute to rigid packaging, on a pan-European base. In the future, the Caresmel family would assume responsibility for both the pouch-making and digital operations of the combined businesses.
The combination of Schur Flexibles’ and UNI Packaging’s extrusion businesses would increase scale and improve the companies’ ability to serve customers even better.
The signing is expected to take place within the upcoming weeks. The transaction will be subject to both internal and external approval including authorisation from the relevant competition authorities.
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