Finnish packaging group Huhtamaki (Espoo; www.huhtamaki.com) has sold its rigid plastic consumer goods business in Brazil to Dixie Toga (São Paulo; www.dixietoga.com.br) and in Argentina to American Plast (Buenos Aires / Argentina), both subsidiaries of Bemis (Minneapolis, Minnesota / USA; www.bemis.com), for EUR 30m. The divested business has annual net sales of EUR 60m and employs 640 people. It includes three manufacturing plants in Brazil and one in Argentina. The facilities in Brazil serve mainly large multinational customers with dairy, ice cream and edible fats packaging, while the unit in Argentina supplies local foodservice markets.

In February 2009, Huhtamaki said that its rigid packaging business was under strategic review and may be sold – see Plasteurope.com of 27.02.2009. CEO Jukka Moisio said that the sale resulted from the review of the company’s rigid plastic consumer goods business in South America and supported implementation of the strategy. “We will continue to review the remaining rigid plastic consumer goods operations in Europe and in Australia. In South America, we will continue to operate our flexibles and rough moulded fibre packaging units,” he added.