Austrian packaging manufacturer Coveris (Vienna; www.coveris.com) has acquired the German family-owned company HLB Verpackung Hettmannsperger & Löchner (Bruchsal; www.hlbsfv.de), a producer of various types of bags and flexible paper-based packaging for food, animal food and industrial products. The deal is expected to significantly increase Coveris’ production capacity for paper bags. “With the acquisition, we are now in a position to produce large capacities of paper bags for international key accounts in Firminy (France) and German sites in Neuwied and Bruchsal at short notice,” Coveris CEO Jacob Mosser said. “Coveris’ total annual sales are now divided equally between paper-based solutions, films and flexible packaging.”

In addition to this latest acquisition, Coveris has expanded its flexible packaging capacity for the medical, food, animal food as well as home and personal care industries over the past 12 months. One takeover target was UK label manufacturer Amberley Adhesive Labels (Blandford; www.amberley.net – see Plasteurope.com of 23.08.2019). Coveris also acquired several 5-layer and 3-layer extrusion lines from the insolvent UK company Total Polyfilm (Preston) in October 2019 in order to strengthen its position in the supply of stretch film for agricultural, silage and industrial applications (see Plasteurope.com of 17.10.2019).

The acquisition of Plasztik-Tranzit Kft Hungary (Pirtó; www.plasztik-tranzit.hu), a supplier of flexible packaging solutions for the food industry, in March 2020 has allowed the group move into Hungary and its neighbouring countries (see Plasteurope.com of 09.03.2020). Following the takeover, Mosser said, “We are confident that the company, which has been operating under the name Coveris Pirtó since the takeover, will grow to the current average volume of a Coveris location within a few years, which would be around EUR 50m.”