flexible packaging

Tenex Buys Labeling Sisters

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Tenex Capital Management has acquired and merged sister companies Consolidated Label and Online Labels (together “Consolidated”) in partnership with their founders, Joel and Dave Carmany.

Consolidated is a provider of printed pressure sensitive, shrink sleeve, flexible packaging, and blank labels on sheets and rolls that are used in the food, beverage, household, medical, pharmaceutical, and promotional products sectors. Through Online Labels, the company provides blank labels used with laser and inkjet printers.

The two companies sells their products to small businesses, consumers, and middle market brands through both enterprise relationships and a direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform. Consolidated was founded in 1980 and Online was launched in 1998. Both companies are headquartered in Sanford, Florida.

In partnership with Tenex, Consolidated will continue to be led by Dave Carmany as CEO and Joel Carmany as president.

“My father and I, as well as the broader organization, are energized by our new partnership with Tenex and believe our complementary skillsets will be a powerful combination in further scaling the company’s value proposition,” said Dave Carmany.

New York City-based Tenex invests up to $100 million in middle-market companies in the industrial, manufacturing, and health and business services sectors.

“Tenex is excited to partner with Dave, Joel, and the impressive organization they’ve created,” said Perrin Monroe, a managing director at Tenex. “Through its solution-based offering, the company has established itself as one of the premier middle market label manufacturers and is well-positioned for further scale. We look forward to supporting the company through this next chapter.”

NXT Capital , as joint lead arranger and joint bookrunner, provided a credit facility to finance Tenex’s acquisition of Consolidated Label and Online Labels.

Private Equity Professional | July 28, 2020

First Atlantic Adds to Packaging Platform

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C-P Flexible Packaging, a portfolio company of First Atlantic Capital since February 2013, has acquired Genpak Flexible from The Jim Pattison Group.

Genpak Flexible’s products include die-cut rollstock and pouches, as well as paper-based laminations used in the coffee, confectionary, snack, medical and pet food industries. The company has facilities near Toronto in Aurora, Ontario and near Minneapolis in Lakeville, Minnesota.

C-P Flexible Packaging is a manufacturer of flexible packaging for the snack food, bakery, confection, and household chemical sectors.  The company offers various flexible packaging products, including spanning HD printed rollstock, premade pouches, shrink sleeves, stretch sleeves, poly bags, roll-fed labels, reclose, cold-seal and recyclable flexible packaging.

With the buy of Genpak, C-P Flexible’s North American footprint now consists of six locations with more than 750 employees. C-P Flexible is led by CEO Mike Hoffman and, according to the company, is one of the top 20 flexible packaging suppliers in the U.S. C-P Flexible was founded in 1959 and is headquartered north of Baltimore in York, Pennsylvania.

“Our vision was to create a major player in the flexible packaging industry with diverse manufacturing capabilities—especially technologies to address speed to market and sustainability. With this transformational acquisition, we are well on our way to achieving our goal,” said Emilio Pedroni, a managing director of First Atlantic.

“We are pleased to continue to support the expansion of C-P Flexible Packaging as it evolves into a leader in the high-growth flexible packaging sector,” said Roberto Buaron, the chairman of First Atlantic. “This acquisition unlocks additional value by substantially expanding the range of products and capabilities we bring to the marketplace.”

New York City-based First Atlantic invests in middle-market companies that are active in the plastics and packaging, food and beverage, consumer and industrial products, and business services sectors. Since its inception in 1989, First Atlantic has acquired more than 70 companies and consolidated them into 22 platforms.

The Jim Pattison Group is a diversified holding company with more than $10 billion in annual sales and is the second-largest private company in Canada. The business is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia and has operating divisions in automotive, advertising, media, agricultural equipment, food and beverage, entertainment, exporting, financial, real estate, and periodical distribution sectors. The Jim Pattison Group acquired Genpak Flexible in 1989.

“We are very proud of our team at Genpak Flexible and the company that they have built,” said David Cobb, managing director of The Jim Pattison Group. “We believe both the employees and customers are in excellent hands with C-P Flexible Packaging and that the combined resources of the two companies will only strengthen the opportunities for both employees and customers.”

Private Equity Professional | June 23, 2020

Olympus Closes Big Add-On to Liquibox

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Liquibox, a maker of liquid packaging products and a portfolio company of Olympus Partners, has closed the buy of the plastics division of DS Smith, for $583 million.

The plastics division (PD) of DS Smith, headquartered near Chicago in Romeoville, Illinois, is a provider of flexible packaging and dispensing products; rigid packaging and containers, and foam products. In 2018, PD had total sales of $479 million.

Liquibox is a supplier of bag-in-box flexible packaging to the dairy, beverage and bulk food markets, and also produces pouches and rigid plastic water bottles. Bag-in-box packaging is primarily used in the foodservice industry to package dairy mix for milkshakes and coffee drinks, fountain beverage syrup and pumpable liquid foods such as food concentrates and sauces. Liquibox, founded in 1961, is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia and has 23 locations around the world. In 2018, Liquibox had revenues of $177 million.

The combination of Liquibox and PD has 35 manufacturing facilities and nearly 3,000 employees. With the close of the acquisition, PD’s flexible packaging and dispensing products will be branded and operate as part of Liquibox, while PD’s rigid businesses for extruded products, injection-molded products, and foam products will be split into three newly branded and independently operated businesses as, respectively, Corplex, DW Reusables and Engineered Foam Products.

This transaction was originally announced in March 2019 but was delayed due to anti-trust concerns in the United States. Earlier this month, Liquibox agreed with a proposal from the Justice Department to divest all of PD’s dairy, post-mix, smoothie, and wine bag-in-box product lines in the United States.

“Liquibox is a core holding for Olympus Partners. The PD acquisition is an important step in achieving our longer-term plan, and we plan to continue to invest in the business in support of its growth strategy,” said Manu Bettegowda, a partner at Olympus.

“We’re excited to complete this transformational acquisition and welcome the PD employees to our team,” said Ken Swanson, CEO of Liquibox. “The new structure and brand identity of these businesses further support our strategy and commitment to lead the way with sustainable packaging solutions. Our best-in-class converting and molding equipment, coupled with further advancements in materials and design will be a big benefit to our customers. We’re excited to unlock additional value through an expanded range of film, bag and dispensing fitments, our best-in-class filler solutions, and an expanded global reach.”

Olympus invests in a range of industries but has a specific interest in business services, food services, consumer products, healthcare services, financial services, industrial services and manufacturing. In December 2017, the firm held a final closing of its seventh institutional private equity fund, Olympus Growth Fund VII LP, with an oversubscribed $3 billion of capital commitments. The firm was founded in 1988 and is based in Stamford, Connecticut.

MidCap Financial was the Joint Lead Arranger and Joint Bookrunner for a $605 million senior secured credit facility that supported Liquibox’s acquisition of the plastics division of DS Smith. MidCap’s deal team was led by Managing Director Puja Parekh. MidCap Financial, in alliance with its investment manager Apollo Capital Management, is a middle-market focused finance firm that provides debt instruments of $10 million to $750 million to companies across all industries.

London-based DS Smith (LSE: SMDS) is an international paper and plastic packaging business with more than $7 billion in annual revenues and 32,000 world-wide employees.

© 2020 Private Equity Professional | February 28, 2020

Blue Sea Partners Up For Packaging Buy

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Blue Sea Capital has acquired Innovative FlexPak in partnership with the company’s founder Travis Parry, Twin Bridge Capital Partners, and GoldPoint Partners.

Innovative FlexPak (IFP) is a contract developer, formulator, and provider of gels, purees, and liquids in single-serve packaging and other formats including tear-top pouches, pillow sachets, die cuts, and bottles in any shape or size. The company’s products include nutritional supplements, food items, household products and other consumer packaged goods.

IFP has more than 350 employees and operates an SQF-certified facility in Springville, Utah that has the capacity to fill hundreds of thousands of pouches each day through both large and small production runs.

IFP was founded in 2006 by CEO Travis Parry. “My number one focus has always been to serve our customers more effectively, with more products and best-in-class customer service,” said Mr. Parry. “From our first meeting, we knew Blue Sea Capital was the right partner for IFP, and that they would bring incredible resources and industry experience to help us expand, while never losing sight of what has gotten us to where we are today.” Post-closing, Mr. Parry has chosen to maintain a significant ownership position in IFP.

“We’re looking forward to partnering with Blue Sea to take IFP to the next level,” said Ryan Gifford, president and chief financial officer of IFP. “With Blue Sea’s investment, executive bench strength, and industry network, IFP is poised to capitalize upon an inflection point and achieve even greater heights.”

“Travis Parry, Ryan Gifford, and the rest of the company’s management team have built IFP into an outstanding company and we’re proud to support them through this next stage of growth,” said Rick Wandoff, a managing partner of Blue Sea. “Blue Sea Capital has a long history in the contract manufacturing sector, and we recognized the company’s unique blend of best-in-class product formulating, manufacturing, and packaging capabilities, management’s tireless focus on customer service, and the culture of talented people that have gotten IFP to where it is today. We look forward to building on this history of success to continue the company’s impressive trajectory.”

Blue Sea Capital invests in companies that have up to $30 million of EBITDA and enterprise values of no more than $200 million. Sectors of interest include aerospace & defense, healthcare and industrial growth. Blue Sea is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“We have canvassed the contract manufacturing sector over many years and identified IFP as a unique and differentiated company with a blue-chip customer base and a compelling value proposition to those they serve,” said Lee Farber, a vice president at Blue Sea. “We are excited to be partnering with this customer-focused management team to drive growth, both organically and via acquisition.”

Twin Brook Capital Partners, the middle-market direct lending arm of Angelo Gordon, served as administrative agent on debt financing to support the buy of IFP by Blue Sea, Twin Bridge and GoldPoint. Chicago-based Twin Brook focuses on loans to private equity-owned companies with EBITDA between $3 million and $50 million, with an emphasis on companies with $25 million of EBITDA and below. The firm targets senior financing opportunities up to $200 million, with hold sizes across the platform ranging from $25 million up to $150 million. Twin Brook’s products include opportunistic investments in second lien, mezzanine, and equity co-investments.

Twin Bridge Capital Partners makes investments in North American-based small and lower middle-market buyout funds and it also makes non-control co-investments across a range of industries. The firm has raised more than $2.5 billion in capital since its founding in 2005 and has offices in Chicago, Illinois and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

GoldPoint Partners (formerly New York Life Capital Partners) with more than $13 billion of assets under management, makes equity co-investments, mezzanine investments, and limited partnership investments in private equity funds. Funding for the firm’s activities comes from pension funds, financial institutions and high net worth investors around the world, as well as for New York Life Insurance Company. GoldPoint is headquartered in New York City.

KeyBanc Capital Markets was the financial advisor to IFP.

© 2020 Private Equity Professional | February 21, 2020

Main Post Closes Second 2019 Add-On for Fortis

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Fortis Solutions Group, a portfolio company of Main Post Partners, has acquired Label Technology Inc.

Label Technology is a printer of flexible packaging, stand-up pouches, and pressure sensitive labels used in the food, natural products, nutraceutical, cosmetic and health and beauty end markets. The company, led by CEO Dave Bankson, was founded in 1986 and became 100% employee-owned through an ESOP in 2007.

Label Technology, with annual revenues of approximately $40 million, has 125 employees and 150,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing and warehouse facilities in Merced, CA (www.labeltech.com).

Fortis Solutions, acquired by Main Post in December 2017, provides labeling and packaging – including pressure sensitive and shrink sleeve labels, multi-ply coupon and flexible packaging printing, extended booklet printing, folding cartons, label applicators and variable data printing – to companies active in the consumer-packaged goods sector. Fortis has eleven manufacturing and sales offices across Texas, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Georgia, North Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan. The company, led by CEO John Wynne, Jr., is headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA (www.fortissolutionsgroup.com).

“Label Technology is an ideal fit within Fortis as the acquisition creates a true national footprint for our organization while broadening our product offerings across multiple vertical markets,” said Mr. Wynne. “I am incredibly impressed with the technical savvy and operational and sales prowess of the company and look forward to working alongside Dave Bankson and the entire Label Technology team.”

With the buy of Label Technology, Fortis Solutions now has more than 700 employees. The company continues to seek add-on acquisitions that expand its product lines and geographic reach.

Earlier this year, Fortis Solutions acquired Lewisville, TX-Infinite Packaging Group from Svoboda Capital. Infinite is a provider of pressure-sensitive labels, shrink sleeves, and pouches to companies operating in the consumer products, retail, food and beverage, nutraceuticals and health and beauty sectors.

Main Post makes both control and non-control investments in middle market growth companies in the consumer, business services and industrial growth sectors. The firm was founded in April 2014 by managing partners Sean Honey and Jeffrey Mills, both former partners at Weston Presidio. Main Post is headquartered in San Francisco (www.mainpostpartners.com).

In November 2018, Main Post held a final closing of its second fund, Main Post Growth Capital II LP, with $700 million of capital commitments. The new fund was oversubscribed and closed at its hard cap less than three months after the launch of fundraising.

© 2019 Private Equity Professional | June 6, 2019

Genstar Adds Facilities to Tekni-Plex

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Tekni-Plex, a portfolio company of Genstar Capital, has agreed to acquire three manufacturing facilities from Amcor’s flexible packaging business unit. Genstar acquired Tekni-Plex from American Securities in October 2017.

The three acquired facilities – located in Madison and Milwaukee, WI, and Ashland, MA – produce a range of sterilizable medical device packaging substrates including coated and uncoated Tyvek®, heat-seal and cold-seal coated paper and films, medical grade laminates and die-cut lids and labels. The closing of this transaction depends on approval from the United States Department of Justice and the closing of the $6.8 billion merger of Amcor (ASX: AMC) and Bemis Company (NYSE: BMS) which was first announced in August 2018.

Tekni-Plex is a manufacturer of packaging and tubing used in the medical, pharmaceutical, personal care, household and industrial, and food and beverage industries.The company’s products include medical tubing and compounds, pharma barrier films, dispensing components, closure liners and protective packaging. Tekni-Plex is led by CEO Paul Young and has approximately 3,000 employees.

“These acquisitions expand our complex packaging solution portfolio for medical device manufacturers, many of whom are our customers today, said Mr. Young. “Tekni-Plex’s medical products businesses – Colorite, Natvar and Dunn – have been supplying these same customers globally for decades, and we will continue to deliver on their quality and service expectations.

Tekni-Plex is headquartered near Philadelphia in Wayne, PA and has manufacturing facilities in Belgium, China, Costa Rica, Germany, India, Italy, Northern Ireland and the United States (www.tekni-plex.com).

Genstar invests from $50 million to $400 million in middle-market companies that have enterprise values from $50 million to $1 billion and EBITDAs greater than $15 million.  The firm targets investments in the financial services, software, industrial technology, and healthcare industries. In February 2019, Genstar held a final closing of Genstar Capital Partners IX LP with $5.9 billion in capital commitments. Genstar was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in San Francisco (www.gencap.com).

Ropes & Gray (www.ropegray.com) was the legal advisor to Tekni-Plex on this transaction. The Ropes & Gray team was led by private equity partner Todd Boes, finance partner Michael Lee, antitrust partner Michael McFalls, real estate partner Peter Alpert, tax partners Aaron Harsh and Benjamin Rogers, IP transactions counsel Michael Kurzer and associates Elizabeth Gallucci and Emily Burke.

© 2019 Private Equity Professional | April 22, 2019

Pritzker Building Packaging Platform

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ProAmpac, a portfolio company of Pritzker Group Private Capital, has acquired Wisconsin-based PolyFirst Packaging. This is the third add-on acquisition that ProAmpac has completed since being acquired by Pritzker Group in November 2016. The two earlier acquisitions were Armonk, NY-based Trinity Packaging in April 2017 and Orlando, FL-based Clondalkin Flexible Packaging in August 2017.

PolyFirst Packaging specializes in printed/customized roll stock and various types of plastic pouches and bags that are used in the industrial, medical, and food sectors. PolyFirst was founded in 1999 as Advanced Bag with an 8,100 square-foot facility with a couple of employees and two machines that produced exactly one style of polyethylene bags. Today, PolyFirst has 120 employees and 67,000 square-feet of production facilities in Hartford, WI (40 miles northwest of Milwaukee) and Aurora, IL (45 miles west of Chicago) (www.polyfirst.com). With the close of this transaction, PolyFirst will now operate as a part of ProAmpac’s US Flexibles Division and Steve Randazzo, the Chief Executive Officer of PolyFirst, will lead operations at the PolyFirst facilities in Hartford and Aurora.

ProAmpac’s packaging capabilities include adhesive lamination, extrusion coating and lamination, film extrusion, metalizing, pouching, bag converting, rotogravure printing, flexographic/offset printing, and HD flexo printing. The company operates under the Prolamina, Ampac and Tulsack brands and serves customers in the food, medical, pet food, security, industrial and specialty retail markets. With the buy of PolyFirst, ProAmpac now has 25 manufacturing sites globally with 3,200 employees supplying more than 5,000 customers in 90 countries. ProAmpac is led by CEO Greg Tucker and is headquartered in Cincinnati (www.proampac.com).

“The acquisition of PolyFirst provides us with cold seal capabilities and several new bag and pouch formats. Combined with our manufacturing expertise and award-winning printing assets, our customers will benefit from a more comprehensive service and product offering,” said Mr. Tucker.

“PolyFirst is a strategic acquisition that expands ProAmpac’s already robust product offering. We will continue to support ProAmpac with acquisitions that add value for their customers and support their growth initiatives in strategic markets,” said Michael Nelson, an Investment Partner at Pritzker Group Private Capital.

Pritzker Group, founded by Managing Partner Tony Pritzker and J.B. Pritzker, has three principal investment teams: Private Capital, which acquires and operates North America-based middle-market companies in the manufactured products, services and healthcare sectors; Venture Capital, which provides early-stage and growth venture funding to technology companies; and Asset Management, which partners with investment managers across global public markets.  The Pritzker Group is based in Chicago (www.pritzkergroup.com).

© 2017 Private Equity Professional | September 5, 2017