DS Smith Completes Acquisition of Romanian Paper Packaging Facilities

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Leading international packaging group DS Smith plc has announced that it has completed acquisition of EcoPack and EcoPaper, Romania. The €208mn acquisition of the leading Romanian integrated packaging and paper group was announced in October last year, when both the parties had entered into an agreement.

The acquisition of stake in the two newly acquired facilities is expected to support DS Smith’s Eastern European operations. Further, it will enhance the company’s capability to serve customers in a high-growth region. Post acquisition, the company’s market share is expected to rise sharply to between 10% and 15%, the company press release noted. The new acquisitions perfectly complement the company’s already existing production units in Romania and offer significant cost-related synergies, it added. Incidentally, the Romanian business has reported robust results over the past several years.

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Miles Roberts, Group Chief Executive, DS Smith plc said that the company is looking forward to work with its new colleagues to further strengthen its operations in the region. EcoPack and EcoPaper’s products and customer base align well with the company, he noted. All the 400 employees of the acquired group will be retained. Also, the employee count might see an increase in future, based on demand growth, Roberts added.

In a separate statement issued yesterday, the company announced that box volume growth remained strong during the second half of the fiscal beginning Nov 1^st, 217, continuing the positive trend seen in H1. Facilities across all geographies delivered strong growth. The company also noted that more initiatives will be announced to improve the efficiency of their own operations.

EcoPack is a major producer of packaging products for local FMCG market, whereas EcoPaper mainly manufactures containerboards.