Finnish packaging specialist Huhtamaki (Espoo; www.huhtamaki.com) is weighing options for its films business, including an outright sale, chief financial officer Thomas Geust has confirmed to Plasteurope.com. The news comes in the wake of the company’s recent agreement to acquire Indian flexible packaging manufacturer Positive Packaging (PPI, Mumbai; www.positivepackaging.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 14.07.2014 – and its growing focus on food packaging.

The segment potentially up for grabs employs 924 people. Its portfolio includes technical films used in labelling, adhesive tape, hygiene and healthcare applications as sanitary napkins as well as by the building, automotive, packaging and graphic arts industries. Only small volumes of the plastic films produced at four locations in Germany, the US, Thailand and Brazil are processed by the Huhtamaki group members, Geust explained.

Huhtamaki’s films segment accounted for a negligible proportion of its total revenue of EUR 2.34 bn in 2013, and although business was seen to improve despite a difficult trading environment in Europe and the US, the segment’s net sales declined 3% year-on-year to just under EUR 187m. EBIT sank by more than 20% to EUR 6.7m. Nevertheless, the business is profitable. In the first half of 2014, the films segment returned sales of EUR 102.1m and EBIT of EUR 6.3m – an earnings gain of 75%.

Net sales of the company as a whole improved by 3% in the first half of 2014 to EUR 1.2 bn, and EBIT rose by 11% to EUR 96m. As trading conditions are expected to remain relatively stable, its good financial position and its ability to generate a positive cash flow will allow it to address “profitable growth opportunities, Huhtamaki said in its earnings statement.