EVANSVILLE —Evansville-based Berry Plastics Corp. announced Monday that it plans to buy a portion of Rexam, a London-based consumer packaging company.
Berry said it has entered into an agreement to acquire Rexam's specialty and beverage closures business, Rexam SBC, for approximately $360 million. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
Rexam SBC produces plastic packaging for a variety of markets including food and beverage, industrial and household chemicals, automotive and beauty products.
Robert Weilminster, Berry's executive vice president of corporate development, said Rexam SBC was an attractive purchase because it will allow Berry to grow and expand.
"The products, the markets and the customers (at Rexam SBC) were all very complementary," Weilminster said.
"We're very excited about the acquisition."
Berry has 75 manufacturing facilities worldwide. For the fiscal year that ended Oct. 2, Berry reported net sales of $4.3 billion and had more than 16,000 employees. The company makes and markets an array of plastic packaging products.
Rexam SBC employs about 1,500 people. It has seven manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and one in Brazil; joint venture agreements with manufacturing facilities in Malaysia and Mexico; and a research and development center in Perrysburg, Ohio.
In 2010, Rexam SBC had net sales of about $500 million.
Rexam SBC's manufacturing plants include three in the Tri-State — one each in Evansville; Princeton and Madisonville, Ky. Those three plants employ a total of about 450 people, Weilminster said.
Berry sees growth potential in the Rexam SBC business, Weilminster said, so at this time Berry does not expect that it will conduct layoffs as a result of the acquisition. But Weilminster said Berry can't guarantee there will be no job losses because it's too early to know all the details of how the acquisition will be integrated into Berry.