The deal officially went through on 5 September, with corporate finance advisor Clearwater International advising Deku-Pack on the sale.
The proposed acquisition was announced on 20 July and is DS Smith's eighth since May 2015. It could not reveal how much the deal was worth.
DS Smith group communications director Hugo Fisher said: “Display and POS products are an area that we think is important and growing. Deku is an attractive business in that sense to us because we’ve certainly been looking at investing in that area and we recently bought Creo in the UK, which focuses on similar products.”
DS Smith acquired Creo in June, on the same day as it announced its proposed acquisition of Portugal-based corrugated packaging business Gopaca.
This came just weeks after it returned to the UK for an acquisition, following a string on the continent, and bought Wigan, Greater Manchester-based TRM Packaging.
DS Smith chief executive Miles Roberts said he was “delighted” to announce the acquisition and that the investment further enhanced DS Smith’s customer offering “geographically and in this important market segment”.
Deku-Pack mainly focuses on the FMCG sector. It consists of five subsidiaries: Pro-Display, Deku-Stans, Vejle Print, DM Plast and Emballage Form.
It has 80 employees and Fisher said it will be “integrated” within DS Smith as DS looks to grow and further develop.
Fisher added: “I think as an overall point for acquisitions, we always look to get the best of both worlds, so we don’t start with the mindset that ‘This is the DS Smith way and that is the only way’, we start off with the mindset of ‘We want to do it in the best way’.”
He said there would be some overlap of customers but this would be relatively limited.
DS Smith already has a presence in the Nordic region, after its acquisition of SCA Packaging in 2012, which Fisher said had a strong position in the Nordics. The deal was worth £1.3bn excluding cash and external debt.
DS Smith employs more than 26,000 employees in 36 countries.
It recently reported on a good volume of growth for the period from 1 May to 1 September 2016.
“We will definitely look to continue to grow both organically and by acquisition. We are very disciplined and choosy about our acquisitions but we certainly believe our customers want us to expand our offering,” added Fisher.
