ALPLA sees gold in South Africa with acquisition of Boxmore Packaging

Austrian packaging specialist ALPLA has acquired Boxmore Packaging, a South Africa-based specialist in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pre-forms, PET bottles and closures.

This is the biggest acquisition in the biggest of ALPLA, according to CEO Günther Lehner.

"The African continent is an attractive growth market for us. With the purchase of Boxmore Packaging, we now also have a broad basis for entering the market in South Africa, in addition to our activities with ALPLA TABA in North Africa," he said.

Boxmore Packaging will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of ALPLA. All employees and locations are being taken on by ALPLA and the management structure will remain the same.

The current Boxmore board, under the leadership of CEO Len Engelbrecht, will continue to manage the existing Boxmore business, and in addition, take on responsibility for the integration and management of the existing ALPLA SA business. The company will continue to operate under the existing name as a member of the ALPLA Group "for the foreseeable future".

Founded in 1995, Boxmore Packaging, headquartered in Johannesburg, currently employs around 1,000 members of staff at nine locations in South Africa, Mauritius and Zambia.

"Both the products and customer structure of Boxmore Packaging suit our corporate structure very well," emphasized Christoph Riedlsperger, ALPLA's Regional Director for Africa, Middle East and Turkey.

He said the active customer base includes numerous international consumer goods companies and long term customers of ALPLA, but also local customers previously unknown to ALPLA.