Following its acquisition of Continental Plastics Europe (CPE) in January (see Plasteurope.com 24 1996), RPC Group PLC (Grove Street, Raunds, GB-NN9 6ED) is now the largest producer of rigid plastic packaging in Europe. It carries out injection moulding, blow moulding and thermoforming, converting over 100,000 t/y of material. Manufacturing operations are substantial in the UK, Germany, Belgium and Netherlands, with a significant business in Spain, embryonic operations in Hungary and Poland and a sales presence in France.

The challenge for the group will now be in fully integrating all these operations and making them more profitable. On its continuing UK operations RPC reported a slight fall in turnover to GBP 94.2m for its financial year to 31.03.97 (1995/96: GBP 95.6m) but improved operating profit of GBP 10.7m (GBP 9.6m), a margin of 11%. In contrast the newly acquired companies contributed turnover of GBP 35m in the period following acquisition but achieved an operating margin of just 2.3% (GBP 813,000). Evenso this represented a considerable improvement on last year's trading, thanks to measures implemented prior to the RPC takeover.

READER SERVICE: RPC 1997 Annual Report: PIE-No. 41348.