Consolidation of the packaging market is still going on. The most recent example is the planned joint venture between CarnaudMetalbox SA (CMB, 153 rue de Courcelles, F-75017 Paris), the largest European packaging manufacturer, and the US company, Wheaton (Millville, New Jersey). Both groups will fuse their activities concerned with health and cosmetic packaging into a new joint venture company to be called Wheaton International. With a turnover of FF 5bn, Wheaton International claims that the new company will be world leader in this product area. The new company will be registered in New Jersey, and CMB and the Wheaton family will each own a 50% share. CMB and Wheaton have complementary product ranges, and have multiple common customers such as Avon, Procter & Gamble and Unilever in body care, pharmaceuticals and cosmetic product packaging.

CMB sees opportunities for expansion especially in the new Eastern European markets and in the Far East. CMB has taken over a Hungarian canning factory adjacent to a subsidiary of the French food manufacturer, Bonduelle, already CMB's largest French customer. The leading canning manufacturer in Finland, G.W. Sohlberg, Helsinki, was acquired in October 1993. In Asia the company is anticipating significant growth potential, especially in the drinks area. According to CMB, since acquiring the packaging activities of Fina Metal Box D, it has become the largest packaging manufacturer in Malaysia. CarnaudMetalbox Asia Ltd, Singapore, owns factories in Thailand, Hong Kong, and China, as well as a joint venture in Vietnam. CMB is convinced that the greatest potential is in China, and after the production start-up in Hong Kong, two further joint ventures will be started up this year and next year, one of which will be in Shanghai.

CMB also sees a large international growth potential in their smallest business area, body care and beauty packaging. The French multi has acted on this with the purchase of Zeller Plastik GmbH (D-56856 Zell/Mosel), a leading manufacturer of plastic caps and precision injection moulded parts. Initially investment in this business area will only be in Europe and North America. Zeller already has about 20% of its turnover in the USA (1992: DM 195m; figures for 1993 are not available).

Another German firm owned by CMB is Raku GmbH (PO Box 2065, D-76410 Rastatt). This company has announced that it is the first European bottle blower to be certified according to ISO 9001. As well as printed bottles for the European pharmaceutical, cosmetic and body care industries, Raku has also been producing technical parts for industrial machinery and for the automobile industry for the last year. Its 100% owned subsidiary Raku Bad Bevensen GmbH (Güterstr 14, D-29549 Bad Bevensen) has achieved an annual turnover of DM 80m with about 400 employees. In February CMB also acquired 75% of the shares of CMN Nordstar Verpackungen GmbH, a food canning company, previously called Verpackungsindustrie Lübeck Dipl Ing Steinle GmbH & Co KG, Lübeck. Nordmilch eG, Zeven, controls the remaining 25%.

CMB's consolidated turnover for the business year 1993 declined from FF 24.83bn in 1992 to FF 24.34bn in 1993. After tax profits fell about 14% to FF 835m. Group turnover increased by 6.4% in the fourth quarter 1993 to FF 5.721bn over the corresponding period for the previous year. CMB points to the consolidation of Zeller Plastik's results, as well as favourable exchange rate adjustments. In spite of continuing market difficulties, it was still able to move forward in the first quarter of 1994. Conditions in the German and French markets remained difficult, as well as in their plastics activities, however moderate improvement was seen in both Great Britain and Italy. Increasingly tough competition in Singapore and Thailand more than cancelled out the dramatic growth experienced by their companies in Malaysia and Hong Kong.

READER SERVICE: CMB Annual Report 1993: PIE-No. 36218 – Raku company description "Quality is no accident (German)": PIE-No. 36219.