Alpha Packaging Acquires Bottle Blow Molder in Upper Midwest Region

The Quality Container acquisition is the second major purchase for Alpha since becoming a Stonebridge portfolio company. In each of the past eight years, Alpha has achieved double-digit sales increases.

24/02/07 Alpha Packaging announced that it has acquired Quality Container of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Quality Container is a manufacturer of HDPE bottles and jars for the pharmaceutical and nutritional supplement markets with reported sales of $18 million in 2006.

Alpha Packaging is a $65 million blow molder of HDPE and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and jars for the personal care, pharmaceutical, nutritional supplement, and niche food and beverage markets. It employs over 250 people at four manufacturing facilities in St. Louis, Bethlehem, Pa., Jacksonville, Fl., and Salt Lake City. In addition to manufacturing, it offers in-house package design services, mold-making, and custom tooling. In 2006, it expanded its East Coast manufacturing presence by tripling the size of its Pennsylvania plant, and in January 2007 it opened a new 120,000 square foot manufacturing plant and stocking facility in Florida.

According to Dave Spence, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Packaging, acquiring Quality Container will support Alpha’s aggressive growth plans. “This represents a strategic move for us, not only to expand our presence in pharmaceutical and nutritional packaging, but also to continue to enhance our footprint in every region of the country,” says Spence. “This acquisition puts us on an accelerated track to achieve $100 million in annual sales.”

Dan Creston, Chief Operating Officer of Alpha Packaging, says Alpha’s acquisition strategy is to identify well-run companies with good balance sheets that can immediately benefit from Alpha’s operational efficiencies. “With Quality Container, we had an opportunity to acquire a company with strong management and a complementary product line that will appeal to our current customers,” Creston says. “With other consolidation taking place in the market, this deal makes sense in terms of both immediate sales opportunities as well as long-term growth objectives.”

Quality Container has 144 employees at its Ypsilanti plant, and its key management will stay on to oversee the Michigan operations. Rob Salemi, Chief Operating Officer of Quality Container, says finding the right fit with new ownership was critical to the deal. “Alpha has grown aggressively in the past 10 years, but still retained the core values that respect each employee’s contribution to the company’s success,” Salemi said. “This is a company we are proud to associate with, and look forward to leveraging our two companies’ strengths to achieve strong sales.”

In January 2005, Alpha entered into a financial partnership with Stonebridge Partners, a private equity firm in White Plains, New York. The move was intended to provide substantial capital investment dollars to fuel Alpha’s continued growth in the plastic packaging marketplace. The Quality Container acquisition is the second major purchase for Alpha since becoming a Stonebridge portfolio company. In each of the past eight years, Alpha has achieved double-digit sales increases. In 2006, Alpha was ranked as the 39th largest blow molder of plastic bottles and jars in North America according to Plastics News.

Alpha and Quality already share many of the same customers in the pharmaceutical and nutritional supplement industries. Spence says the two companies have had many parallel experiences, and believes the culture at both companies will easily merge.