Austria-based Alpla Group, a global plastic packaging and recycling specialist, acquired last month the lubricants division of South African packaging manufacturer Verigreen. Terms were not disclosed.
Verigreen, which specializes in bottles and canisters for lubricants, has a workforce of 25 employees at its site in Durban, which is South Africa’s third largest city. “It offers us an inroad into a market segment in which we have not been present – in southern Africa – until now, as well as generating synergies for our existing customers and giving us opportunities to further diversify our portfolio,” Alpha Managing Director of Sub-Saharan Africa Mike Resnicek said in a press release.
According to Alpla’s website, it has had a production site in Johannesburg since 2014. In 2015, Alpla took over the Egyptian site of Argo S.A. in El Obour. Alpla strengthened its presence in North Africa and the Middle East through a joint venture with the Egyptian Taba Group in 2016. The joint venture has been operating under the name Alpla Taba since 2017.
In 2017, Alpla acquired Boxmore Packaging, an African market leader in manufacturing of polyethylene terephthalate bottles, PET preforms and caps. Alpla said it has a modern production facility and a regional head office under construction in Lanseria near Johannesburg. The company has an existing production facility near Cape Town.
Alpla has 21,600 employees worldwide, producing custom-made packaging systems, bottles, caps and molded parts at 178 sites across 45 countries. The company said its high-quality packaging is used in a wide range of areas, including for food and drinks, cosmetics and care products, household detergents, washing and cleaning agents, pharmaceutical products, engine oils and lubricants.
The company operates its own recycling plants for PET and high-density polyethylene in Austria, Poland and Spain, and it has joint ventures in Mexico and Germany.