In keeping with its three-year, EUR 40m acquisition strategy, Irish packaging manufacturer and wholesaler Zeus Packaging Group (Dublin; www.zeuspackaging.com) has now taken over compatriot company Limerick Packaging (Limerick; www.limerickpackaging.ie). Financial details were not disclosed. The Limerick operations raise Zeus’ domestic storage and distribution capacity to about 55,742 m².

Founded in 2002, Limerick has an annual turnover of EUR 17.4m and focuses on corrugated packaging solutions for the health and food-processing sectors. Zeus Packaging, established in 1998, has a yearly turnover of EUR 325m with 670 employees at 38 offices worldwide. The addition of Limerick Packaging’s 45 employees brings Zeus’ personnel in Ireland to over 220. The latest purchase will be complemented by a further EUR 150,000 investment in Zeus’ in-house CAD operations.

Commenting on the acquisition, Zeus CEO Keith Ockenden said, “Growth in the home delivery sector is seeing demand for packaging increase by over 20%. It will better enable us to provide both bespoke and off-the-shelf solutions to Irish businesses and cements our ambition of becoming the leading industrial and transit packaging supplier across Ireland and the UK.”

As part of the expansion of the group’s distribution and logistics capabilities in food and industrial packaging across 26 countries, Zeus bought Austrian firm Petruzalek earlier this year (see Plasteurope.com of 18.02.2021) and says it has grown at a rate of 7%-10% per annum for the past five years.