Asteria completed the purchase of the £15m-turnover family-run label business in late December.

Managing director of Berkshire Labels, Paul Roscoe, said he was delighted the company had joined a growing company like Asteria.

“Obviously, we sit in a position where we attract some attention - and we’ve had lots of attention over the years,” he told Printweek.

Until now, however, none had fit with Berkshire Labels’ plans, according to Roscoe.

The firm is committed to growth: aiming for £20m in the “next couple of years,” it has also drawn up expansion plans at its Hungerford site that will push it up to £25m.

Asteria has committed to supporting these growth plans, Roscoe said, while allowing Berkshire Labels to keep its name, management and all 75 staff on in the acquisition.

“We’re still a family business, with the same core family values, just part of a wider support network,” Roscoe explained.

“It's quite nice to just have that full support of like-minded people. We very much struck a chord with Asteria, the management team and the CEO [...]

“They’re very much behind everything that we want to achieve and it feels exciting to have their support behind us.”

Knowledge-sharing across the group will be of particular benefit to Berkshire Labels’ ambitious growth goals, he added.

Roscoe said: “They have some high calibre experts across all fields. They have innovation experts, packaging technologists, automation experts, MIS experts - between us all, we’ll just become stronger, together.”

Asteria’s last UK purchase, made in September 2021, was of Wolverhampton-based CS Labels, which was also family-owned. 

The purchase of Berkshire Labels pushes the Asteria group to ownership of 24 companies.

Asteria’s CEO, Ives Declerk, said: “Berkshire Labels is a great company and great fit for the Asteria Group and will complement and expand our existing European and UK production sites.

"We look forward to supporting Paul and the team at Berkshire in their exciting growth plans.”