Richard Higgs, EUROPEAN PLASTICS NEWS
Published: July 31, 2014 9:59 am ET
Updated: July 31, 2014 10:05 am ET
International packaging group Coveris Holdings has sold its Spanish business Coveris Rigid Spain, including an injection molding plant in Sopelana, to the national rigid containers producer ITC Packaging of Ibi near Alicante.
Coveris Rigid Spain, operating near Bilbao, has an annual turnover of approximately 8.5 million euros ($11.38 million) and employs 48 at its production site near Bilbao.
The ITC purchase, for an undisclosed sum, will double its existing production capacity centered on south eastern Spain, allowing the firm to serve customers across the north of the country.
Its new 4,900-square-meter (52,000-square-foot) facility will also support ITC export sales to France, Italy, the Benelux countries and the U.K. The firm plans to rename the site shortly, it stated.
Coveris said the divestment in Spain is part of the group’s development of its rigid packaging division’s “footprint” in Europe.
Family-run ITC, with 20 years experience in rigid packaging, concentrates on thin wall container molding in Alicante and will continue to be headquartered in south eastern Spain. Currently, the firm employs 150 and has annual sales worth 33 million euros ($44.1 million).
Last year, it produced 400 million containers in polypropylene, polystyrene and PET with 80 percent of its business in food packaging and the rest containers for products such as paints and detergents. It offers a range of decorative finishes.
As part of its growth strategy, the Spanish group intends to focus investment on the Sopelana unit, with an ambitious business plan to “optimize its resources and enlarge the plant activity.” ITC aims to expand its range of customers with main dairy producers in Spain and France, it said.
The company is expected to achieve its annual sales target of 50 million euros ($66.9 million) in the next two years while gradually expanding its workforce.
ITC Packaging, which already operates injection molding machines ranging from 200 to 700 metric tonnes, stated that the acquisition completes its strategic target of expanding business in Europe. | 
