Expanded polystyrene manufacturer Styropack (UK) Ltd (Aberdeen - Scotland AB12 3AS; www.styropack.com) has acquired Protection Packaging, one of the UK´s largest producers of protective foam packaging. The purchase price has not been disclosed.

The deal increases the number of foam moulding sites for Styropack from five to nine, effectively doubling the size of its business, which turned over GBP 18m last year. The combined workforce will now total in excess of 400.“The acquisition of Protection Packaging is a natural fit for us,” said Styropack (UK) managing director, John Yeoman. “Although Styropack already has a strong position in the standard products sector of the industry, our objective of attaining a similar position in the custom mouldings market has been realised by this deal.”

Part of the Dutch Synbra Group ( www.synbra.com), one of Europe´s largest packaging and insulation companies, Styropack was already the biggest EPS moulder in the UK. It has plants in Aberdeen and Grimsby serving the fish packaging market, a vegetable and DIY container business in West Sussex and a technical packaging operation in Aberdare, South Wales, servicing the local TV industry. Its Polybox subsidiary is based in Stornaway in the western Isles of Scotland.

Previously part of the Padiham Group, which will now concentrate on its textiles activities, Protection Packaging has a turnover of GBP 18m and is the only major UK manufacturer that both moulds expanded polystyrene and polypropylene and converts expanded PE foam. It operates from bases in Glasgow, Harelaw in County Durham, Rishton, near Blackburn, and Newport, South Wales. This latter plant provides packaging mainly for the automotive industry and is said to have little product overlap with the adjacent Styropack plant in Aberdare.