PM Studio acquires TNT Group to build €130M luxury packaging business

PM Studio Group has acquired TNT Group, creating a packaging business with approximately €130 million (US$146 million) in combined revenue and strengthening its position in global luxury markets. 

The partnership brings together PM Studio’s expertise in the secondary packaging and bespoke accessories space, with TNT Group’s premium primary and secondary packaging solutions for the beauty, wines, and spirits sectors. 

TNT Group has operations in Hong Kong SAR, Paris, France, and New York, US, while PM Studio Group generates an annual revenue of over €70 million (US$78.5 million), with more than 90 employees based internationally. 

PM Studio supplies luxury gifting products, secondary packaging, and bespoke accessories to brands like Dior, Gucci, Prada, and Burberry. 

“By combining PM Studio Group’s creative studio, R&D culture, and secondary-packaging expertise with our engineering, we will be able to bring brands complete, coherent packaging concepts earlier in their creative process,” Thomas Diezinger, co-founder of TNT Group, tells Packaging Insights. 

Specifically, the acquisition aims to “open up” three new areas of innovation by tapping into each company’s skills and knowledge. 

Firstly, the acquisition sets out to offer an expanded range, covering the entire value chain. It also aims to have a “stronger presence” in complementary markets, with major beauty and luxury groups, fast-growing niche brands, and wines and spirits players. 

Lastly, TNT Group highlights that it will focus on amplifying its international position by securing its presence in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North America. 

TNT Group’s co-founders, Diezinger and Toby Cattermole, are reinvesting a “significant share” of their sale proceeds in the combined group, alongside other key managers. 

Sustainability meets luxury 

Luxury beauty brands are increasingly innovating to reconcile premium packaging experiences with recyclability, refillability, and material reduction. Diezinger explains: “The challenge is still to deliver the weight, tactile quality, and visual richness that luxury requires while simplifying the pack.” 

TNT Group has specific technical expertise in recycled zamak, a family of zinc-based alloys that, due to its smooth finish, is often used in luxury personal care packaging. 

For example, TNT Group previously equipped French skin care brand Darphin with two refillable glass containers featuring a gold cage-like structure made from zamak. 

Diezinger tells us: “We see the biggest opportunities in monomaterial designs, such as all-cardboard secondary packaging, in finishing processes that ennoble materials without adding to their carbon footprint, and in materials like recycled zamak.” 

He emphasizes that these materials and design techniques reinforce how “luxury experience and sustainability can go hand in hand.” 

Last year, TNT Group launched paper boxes for luxury personal care products, combining sustainability with an unboxing experience. 

It also designed a wood case to protect and house France-based L’Artisan Parfumeur’s latest perfume, the Cuir Grenat bottle, wrapped in 24-carat gold leaf foil. 

In an interview with Packaging Insights, Virginie Pellé, secondary packaging division director at TNT Group, discussed using wood in personal care packaging, detailing how timber evokes ideas of heritage and culture. 

Aligning visions 

The companies highlight that the transaction reflects a desire for “long-term alignment and a collective commitment to a shared vision,” that retains each company’s “identity, agility, and entrepreneurial culture.” 

Patricia Stranik, president and CEO at PM Studio Group, shares that the France-based companies “share the same philosophy” and creative drive required for innovation in the beauty packaging space. 

“Bringing our worlds together is a tremendous opportunity,” she highlights. “We now look forward to exploring together all the synergies that this combination makes possible.” 

Increasingly, acquisitions and mergers in the packaging sector are being used to expand geographic reach and broaden technological expertise, with recent deals including Butterfly Equity’s acquisition of Sabert and BASF’s interest in a potential takeover of Evonik — although an initial deal was rejected.