Packaging manufacturer Sirap-Gema (Verolanuova / Italy; www.sirapgroup.com) is continuing its international expansion drive. After recently announcing the acquisition of two subsidiaries of Reynolds Group Holdings (Auckland / New Zealand; www.reynoldsgroupholdings.com – see Plasteurope.com of 21.11.2017), the Italian company has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire a thermoforming plant in France and a trading company in Germany. The deal is intended to strengthen Sirap's position in the European food packaging market, and expected to be completed in January 2018, with the formal transfer of the shares.

Sirap has reached an agreement with Vitembal Holding (Remoulins / France) for the complete acquisition of Vitembal GmbH (Bergheim / Germany; www.vitembal.de) and Vitembal Tarascon (Tarascon / France; www.vitembal.com). Trading company Vitembal GmbH employs about 20 people and generated sales of EUR 12.9m in 2016, and will become part of Sirap-Gema. Vitembal Tarascon operates a food packaging (PET, PP and PET/PE) plant in the south of France and recently generated revenues of EUR 9.6m. It will be purchased by Sirap France.

In 2015, Vitembal acquired a French foam packaging factory – see Plasteurope.com of 09.02.2015. The Italian company currently has 10 production sites with 1,200 employees, and had sales of EUR 207m in 2016. With this latest transaction, Vitembal is selling its last activities.