Australia’s Amcor (Hawthorn, Victoria; www.amcor.com) has agreed to pay AUD 50m (EUR 33.8m) for Detmold Flexibles (Brompton, South Australia; www.detmold.com.au), a privately-owned flexible packaging manufacturer. Detmold Flexibles operates two plants in Melbourne and has sales of about AUD 55m. The company will be part of Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific. The acquisition is subject to approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

According to Ken MacKenzie, Amcor’s CEO, the acquisition will enable the Australian flexibles business to strengthen its manufacturing centres of excellence with plants focussed on specific technologies and end-market segments. He says: “The acquisition will further improve our customer value proposition in the Australian market by enhancing the ability to invest in both product and process innovation. Given the manufacturing overlap in the businesses there is considerable opportunity for operational synergies and returns are expected to be more than 20%.”

The deal follows the purchase in July of the flexible packaging operations from China’s Jiangsu Shenda Group (Jiangyin City, Jiangsu; www.shendapack.cn) – see Plasteurope.com of 04.07.2013.