The Box is in Demand- October 2015 M&A Activity
The Box is in – paperboard, corrugated, decorated, foil-stamped, bar-coded, laminated, textured, embossed, pearlized, diecut, folded, glued, large and small. Folks in the business of printing love the box. Unlike the box’s troubled cousin, commercial printing, the box is reordered on a regular basis and is far less subject to disruption by online internet-based technologies.
Graphic Packaging International announced the acquisition of Carded Graphics, a Virginia-based printer of folding cartons used to package food, craft beers and other consumer products. The company utilizes two traditional offset printing presses and diecutting technologies. The acquired company, Carded Graphics, is clearly a small catch relative to the buyer, which has revenues in excess of four billion dollars. Nonetheless, regardless of the relative small size of the acquisition, the transaction is consistent with the company’s clearly articulated strategic plan to focus on the production of folding cartons. Graphic Packaging also announced in October that it was expanding into the Mexican market for folding cartons with the acquisition of G-Box. The acquired company prints and manufactures folding cartons and corrugated boxes.