The French family-owned group’s Alfaplas subsidiary in Hereford completed the acquisition of Sarpak, based in Port Talbot, South Wales, on 26 March.
Employing 53 people, Sarpak extrudes, converts and recycles PE and compostable films. It recorded a turnover of around £10.4m in 2019 and currently has a production capacity of around 7,000 tonnes. All of the company's staff, including its management, have been kept on as part of the acquisition and will remain based at their current premises.
Alfaplas, meanwhile, employs 95 people at its Hereford site, where it extrudes, prints and slits PE and compostable films as well as paper. The company’s 2019 turnover was £18.2m.
The business has hit the headlines in the last few years due to the increasing use and success of its starch-based bio-plastics.
The National Trust switched all 2.4 million copies of the UK’s highest-circulating magazine to a compostable wrap from Alfaplas in 2018, with publications including The Guardian and First News following in 2019.
A spokesperson for Sphere told Printweek that Alfaplas and Sarpak have been partners for 20 years, and that the idea of getting together “has naturally come to both teams, encouraged by the opportunities in the UK to develop bio-sourced and eco-friendly flexible packaging solutions”.
John Persenda, president of the Sphere Group, said: “This acquisition will provide both companies with new manufacturing capabilities, enable them to offer their customers a new range of environmentally responsible products and capture new markets for continued growth.”
The group said the deal would enable it to “position itself better on the British market in order to fully meet the expectations of consumers and local authorities”. It is targeting turnover of more than £60m in the UK in the future and plans to keep developing the equipment portfolio of both Alfaplas and Sarpak.
The spokesperson added the Alfaplas and Sarpak teams “are now actively engaged in an integration plan for their activities”, and will work closely with Sphere Consumer Products UK.
With 15 production sites in Europe, seven of which are located in France, and an annual production of 180,000 tonnes of films and bags, Sphere achieved a turnover of €640m (£554m) in 2020 and employs 1,480 people.
