What had looked to be on the cards has now become official – with effect from 31 July 2018, Coveris (Chicago, Illinois / USA; www.coveris.com) has sold its rigid packaging business to private equity firm Lindsay Goldberg (New York / USA; www.lindsaygoldbergllc.com – see Plasteurope.com of 09.05.2018). The transaction covers 18 plants with 3,500 employees in Europe and the US, says Coveris. The purchase price for the business, which posted sales of around EUR 560m in 2017, was not disclosed. With the previous sale of its Americas business several months ago, and the now completed sale of its Rigid Packaging segment, Coveris will be focusing on its European flexible packaging business.

Lindsay Goldberg will rebrand its acquired activities under the name Paccor. It will thus take on the name of one of the companies from which Coveris was initially created (see Plasteurope.com of 21.11.2013). The private equity firm aims to further strengthen Paccor. "Apart from organic international growth, the takeover of competitors is at the heart of our expansion strategy," says Thomas Unger, partner to Lindsay Goldberg Vogel. "We have already identified some target companies that can supplement our portfolio and increase its value."

Lindsay Goldberg is not exactly a stranger to the market for plastic packaging. The firm has, since 2012, acquired the Weener group (Ede / The Netherlands; www.wppg.com – see Plasteurope.com of 08.02.2012), which in subsequent years – not least through acquisitions – nearly doubled its turnover to EUR 270m and its workforce to 2,000. Two years ago, Lindsay Goldberg also took over Schur Flexibles (Wiener Neudorf / Austria; www.schurflexibles.com – see Plasteurope.com of 25.07.2016), a flexible packaging manufacturer with sales of around EUR 500m and more than 1,750 employees.