Beyond The Headlines: One Rock Capital Partners acquires Constantia Flexibles, UPM Raflatac papers gain certification

12 Jan 2024 --- This week in industry news, One Rock Capital Partners announced that one of its affiliates acquired Constantia Flexibles from Wendel. Meanwhile, all papers sourced by UPM Raflatac became certified under a third-party forest certification scheme, and Berry Global announced it will showcase its high-performance PE cling film in Bologna, Italy.

In brief: Business news 
One Rock Capital Partners announced that one of its affiliates has completed the acquisition of Constantia Flexibles, a global packaging manufacturer, from Wendel, a European investment firm, Maxburg Capital Partners and other shareholders. Constantia is a leading flexible packaging producer and is headquartered in Vienna, Austria. The company employs over 7,150 employees globally at 28 sites in 15 countries. 

Max Solutions, a differentiated specialty packaging company founded in 2021, announced the acquisition of Bellwyck Packaging. Bellwyck manufactures folding cartons, labels and rigid packaging in three manufacturing sites in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada, focusing primarily on the pharma, health and beauty and horticulture end markets. 

Shrieve Chemical Company, a portfolio company of Gemspring Capital and a value-added chemicals distributor, announced that it acquired TLC Ingredients, a distributor of food ingredients, industrial chemicals and phenolic resins based in Crest Hill, Illinois. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition expands Shrieve’s presence in the Midwest and enhances the company’s ability to serve the attractive — and growing — food ingredients end-market. 

Berry Global’ high-performance PE cling film for fresh food applications.Cadence Design Systems acquired Invecas, a leading provider of design engineering, embedded software and system-level solutions, headquartered in Santa Clara, US. The purchase adds a skilled system design engineering team to Cadence, with expertise in providing customers with custom solutions across chip design, product engineering, advanced packaging and embedded software. The acquisition brings a skilled engineering team centered in Hyderabad, India. Invecas has built close relationships with key design ecosystem players, foundry, assembly and test partners. With experience designing chips and taking them to production, Invecas has served hundreds of customers across various verticals, including mobile, networking, hyperscale and automotive.

SupplyOne, the largest independent supplier of corrugated and other value-added packaging products, equipment and services in the US, acquired Crownhill Packaging, a North American packaging distributor headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Crownhill offers customers a full portfolio of customized packaging solutions and is highly regarded for its custom packaging capabilities, sustainable product offerings and customer-oriented service. Key customer segments serviced by Crownhill include public sector agencies, industrial products, consumer goods and e-commerce. This acquisition represents the 39th addition to the SupplyOne portfolio in its 25 years in business. With 18 corrugated production facilities and 45 distribution centers across North America, the company offers corrugated and packaging capabilities with a dedicated focus on local marketplaces. 

In brief: Certifications and events 
All papers from UPM Raflatac became certified under a credible third-party forest certification scheme. Having all papers certified is one of UPM Raflatac’s 2030 responsible sourcing and climate targets, which was now achieved six years ahead of time. The range includes face papers and release liners in its labeling materials. By having all its papers certified under FSC-endorsed forest certification systems, UPM Raflatac can support its customers in achieving their responsible sourcing targets. UPM Raflatac aims to be the world’s first label materials company beyond fossils. 

Beontag, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of pressure-sensitive adhesives and smart tags such as RFID and NFC, announced it will participate in NRF 2024, in New York City, US, between January 14-16. Beontag will bring a significant portfolio of products and sustainable solutions to the event, highlighting the impact of its solutions from the entire value chain to transforming the customer experience. The company will be represented on-stage during NRF 2024 by Guido Mengoni, marketing and advisory director at Temera, a Beontag company. The presentation, taking place on Tuesday, January 16, will focus on the innovative customer experience solutions Temera provides to leading luxury brand Bulgari using digital twin technology.  

In brief: Film innovationsCAF’s “world’s largest” VCI film plant. 
Berry Global announced it will showcase its global high-performance PE cling film branded Omni Xtra at Marca by BolognaFiere Private Label Conference and Exhibition in Bologna, Italy, January 16-17. Suitable for various fresh food applications, including fruit and vegetables, meat and poultry, deli and bakery products, the new Omni Xtra+ film offers improved elasticity, uniform stretching behavior and enhanced impact resistance compared to its previous versions. These improved mechanical properties have also allowed for the production of a thinner overall film than traditional PVC alternatives — delivering a weight reduction of over 25% compared to PVC — while maintaining strength and puncture resistance. In addition to its lighter weight, Omni Xtra+ is also recyclable where PE film collections exist and aligns with current European recycling guidelines.

Cortec Advanced Films’ (CAF) “world’s largest” vapor corrosion inhibiting (VCI) film plant is increasing its capacity with a new state-of-the-art extrusion line. The new multimillion-dollar line, E23, promises to benefit customers and employees as CAF continues to blaze new ground with an expanding portfolio of specialty film and bag products. The new equipment will allow CAF to increase the production volumes of co-extruded films and will give workers the agility to change tolerances with the touch of a button. The previous co-extruder required manual adjustment and could only run at approximately 60% of the new extruder capacity. This improvement will greatly increase efficiency for both specialty films and any standard VpCI product CAF may eventually choose to run on the equipment. E23 can extrude tubing up to 75 inches (190.5 cm) wide and sheeting up to 150 inches (381 cm) wide. CAF hopes to replicate the efficiency and greater control of the new technology by adding additional co-extrusion lines.

By Natalie Schwertheim