A specialist in food packaging, particularly in fruit and vegetables, Carton Pack will provide significant opportunities for growth for Clifton Packaging, according to Shane d’Souza, Clifton Packaging CEO and one of three newly appointed directors, promoted from chief operating officer.

“It’s early days yet, but in principle the first priority is to grab all the low-hanging fruit,” he told Printweek.

“We’ll combine notes, and look at the synergies available in combining suppliers. Strategically, they’re very strong in different sectors to us – they’re strong in fruit and veg, and we’re very strong in wet protein and snack [packaging].

“We have an opportunity to add their products to our portfolio, reinforcing our offering, because Clifton has a very big UK facility, with lots of storage.”

The deal completed on 29 October.

Clifton Packaging has a combined total of around 15,000sqm of production and warehousing space across its two sites, based just off the M1’s Junction 21, south of Leicester.

Both companies will benefit from access to each others’ respective markets, according to Gianni Leone, CEO of Carton Pack, who said he was “delighted” to welcome the firm into the group – not least to benefit from Clifton Packaging’s strong progress on using recyclable and sustainable materials, which sees the flexible packaging specialist print on 60% recyclable substrates.

Leone added: “The acquisition represents a vital step in our global strategy to deliver both plastic and paper sustainable packaging solutions on a larger scale to the food industry. This partnership not only expands our product range but also strengthens our capacity to serve clients across Europe and beyond, further reinforcing our commitment to quality, service and innovation.ˮ

“We won’t go shouting it across the rooftops, but we are market leaders [in sustainability],” added d’Souza.

Clifton Packaging will retain its current management team, less the former director-owners, Zahid, Tahir and Shahid Sheikh.

Post-acqusition, there is plenty of scope for growth, according to d’Souza, with Carton Pack parent company, London-based private equity firm A&M Capital Europe, looking for further acquisitions.

“We’ll put names into the pot for where we feel we can offer vertical integration and synergies, and they’ll go back and crunch the numbers,” d’Souza said.

“We’ll continue on our plans of organic growth that we already have in place with Clifton, but then we may have further growth through acquisition.”

He added that given Clifton Packaging’s clean financial bill of health, the acquisition has not seen much need for investment from Carton Pack in the firm.

“We’re a well-invested company, so we’re only doing a few tweaks,” he said.

One such tweak is a new focus on hiring a salesforce.

“We’ve grown the company through word of mouth reputation, so we have one salesperson that looks after a £40m turnover company – so we’ll reinforce that, and bring in someone who’s strong in the sectors Carton Pack works in, to help promote their products,” d’Souza said.

“The brothers who owned it have invested well in advance, and we have lots of surplus capacity, which we hope to capitalise on over the next couple of years – and if we grow at a faster rate than planned and need to invest, we have lots of space in our sites to do so.”

Clifton Packaging’s flexo lineup includes two eight-colour Koenig & Bauer Flexotecnica presses, an XD and XG, a Uteco Crystal, and a pair of Soma Optima 2s, the latest to go in.

Carton Pack employs more than 500 staff in seven production sites and 15 warehouses across Europe, with Clifton Packaging’s acquisition taking it up to around 630.