French packaging manufacturer Groupe Axium (Andrézieux-Bouthéon; www.groupe-axium.fr) has a new owner since the end of June 2020 – French investment firm Cerea Partners (Paris; www.cerea.com). Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Following this transaction, the investment company holds a majority stake through the “Cerea Capital II” fund, while the French state investment fund Bpifrance (Paris; www.bpifrance.fr) is coming on board as a minority shareholder. According to Cerea, Yves Cury, son of the company’s founder and president of Axium, has also invested “substantially” in the transaction, together with his management team. “It was important for Axium to strengthen its position to face the new environmental and industrial challenges of tomorrow,” he said, commenting on the deal. Cury did not provide any figures either. It was merely stated that the financing would be supplemented by a bank loan arranged by Caisse d’Epargne.

Founded in 1968 and based near Saint-Étienne near Lyon, Axium specialises in plastic packaging and closures made of PET, rPET, polypropylene and polyethylene for the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and chemical industries. With more than 400 employees, the group now operates three locations in France, one in Germany (Kall) and one in the Czech Republic (Janovice nad Úhlavou). Axium generated sales of EUR 60m in 2019.

The group has grown noticeably organically through the acquisition of the smaller competitor and plastic injection moulder Lapac (Saint-Rémy-la-Vanne / France; www.lapac.fr) and Kaller Kunststoff Technik (KKT, Kall; www.kkt-kall.de) in 2016. With KKT, Axium’s product range was expanded to include two-stage injection stretch blow moulding of PET and extrusion blow moulding of HDPE and PP hollow parts (see Plasteurope.com of 15.12.2016).

In connection with the Covid-19 pandemic, the group recorded strong demand for plastic bottles for disinfectants and alcohol-based gels in the first half of 2020.