Barely two weeks after Plastipak Packaging (Plymouth, Michigan / USA; www.plastipak.com) bought all its American assets – see Plasteurope.com of 11.02.2014 – the piecemeal sale of insolvent US plastic food and beverage container producer Constar International (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; www.constar.net) is proceeding apace. Local media report that a pre-pack administration deal has been reached for the group’s UK-based PET container operations, located in Leeds, and with reported annual turnover of GBP 80m.

Under the arrangement, all assets of the operation were sold to Sherburn Acquisitions, a new company connected to turnaround investor Greybull Capital (London / UK; www.greybull.co.uk). The acquisition means the site’s 140 employees can breathe a sigh of relief, with business set to continue. Key customers of Constar UK include Britvic Soft Drinks (Hemel Hempstead / UK; www.britvic.co.uk) – which the insolvent parent company owes USD 5.43m – as well as Cott International (Tampa, Florida / USA; www.cott.com), Coca-Cola (Atlanta, Georgia / USA; www.coca-cola.com) or Heineken (Amsterdam / The Netherlands; www.heineken.com).