Britton Group, one of the UK's largest packaging companies, has been bought by HSBC's private equity arm and former Amcor Flexibles chief John Durston has returned to the industry frontline as the firm's non-executive chairman.
Venture capitalist LDC, which provided more than £18m for the £46m management buyout (MBO) of the Cheshire-based group led by chief executive Mike Clark in 2004, had put the firm up for sale in January. HSBC was unable to comment at the time of writing.
Durston is the former deputy chief executive of Amcor Flexibles. He is currently a non-executive director of Plantic Technologies, the bioplastics producer based in Australia, and of Inbartec, a Portugal-based firm that specialises in protective membranes for wine closures.
Durston told Packaging News that Britton had a very strong position in the flexo market and had a good order book.
"It's a very well-run company, it has been doing extremely well and I'm hoping to bring a bit of experience to the board," he said.
Durston also said Britton could expand in Europe, "to help support some of our international customers", but it had not faced the same competition from Eastern Europe that had prompted his former firm, Amcor, to shift more of its business to low-cost economies.
Britton is the second-largest supplier of flexible plastic packaging in the UK behind British Polythene Industries (BPI), and produces more than 90,000 tonnes of plastic film each year. This includes food and drink multi-packs, mailing/home shopping films, and pouch packaging for the retail, pharmaceutical, medical and construction industries.
The group has divisions in Winsford in Cheshire (Britton Taco), Louth in Lincolnshire (Britton Merlin), and Hartlepool (Britton Decoflex). It employs around 850 people and generated sales of around £100m in 2006.
Venture capitalist LDC, which provided more than £18m for the £46m management buyout (MBO) of the Cheshire-based group led by chief executive Mike Clark in 2004, had put the firm up for sale in January. HSBC was unable to comment at the time of writing.
Durston is the former deputy chief executive of Amcor Flexibles. He is currently a non-executive director of Plantic Technologies, the bioplastics producer based in Australia, and of Inbartec, a Portugal-based firm that specialises in protective membranes for wine closures.
Durston told Packaging News that Britton had a very strong position in the flexo market and had a good order book.
"It's a very well-run company, it has been doing extremely well and I'm hoping to bring a bit of experience to the board," he said.
Durston also said Britton could expand in Europe, "to help support some of our international customers", but it had not faced the same competition from Eastern Europe that had prompted his former firm, Amcor, to shift more of its business to low-cost economies.
Britton is the second-largest supplier of flexible plastic packaging in the UK behind British Polythene Industries (BPI), and produces more than 90,000 tonnes of plastic film each year. This includes food and drink multi-packs, mailing/home shopping films, and pouch packaging for the retail, pharmaceutical, medical and construction industries.
The group has divisions in Winsford in Cheshire (Britton Taco), Louth in Lincolnshire (Britton Merlin), and Hartlepool (Britton Decoflex). It employs around 850 people and generated sales of around £100m in 2006.
Source: packagingnews
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