The Ball acquisition, which was originally announced in June, was closed on Monday following the termination of the statutory Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period in the US.
With the deal completed, Amcor has outlined how the Ball operations will help the company fulfill its growth ambitions.
“This acquisition makes us a larger and more diverse company,” said William Long, president of Amcor Rigid Plastics. “We’ve again stepped outside of PET and we expect to take advantage of the growth opportunities presented by our new material and processing expertise.”
New opportunities
Thanks to the deal, Amcor has added multilayer, retort, and barrier technologies to its portfolio and now has the know-how to manufacture HDPE and PP extrusion-blow molded containers.
In particular, the company sees strong opportunities in sectors such as multilayer food packs and retortable containers for food and drinks, including coffee drinks, nutraceutical drinks and dairy-based beverages. Amcor said the acquisition also opens the door to the wine market.
And in terms of specific technologies that the acquisition brings, Amcor mentioned Gamma-Clear multilayer OPP containers for barrier food applications, Gamma PP retort bottles that withstand sterilisation temperatures of up to 250F (121C) and the Plasmax SiOx internal barrier coating.
Geographical spread
Although the newly acquired Ball business has historically been based in North America, from facilities in Ames, Iowa; Batavia, Ill; Bellevue, Ohio; Chino, California; and Delran, N.J; Amcor said the new technologies acquired from the company will be transferable to its businesses in Mexico and Latin America.
While Amcor described the Ball acquisition as another step outside of PET, Amcor said it remains committed to the North American carbonated soft drink (CSD) and water segments.
Annual sales at Ball Plastics Packaging Americas currently stand at around $600m. The business currently employs about 950 people and maintains manufacturing capacity for more than 5 billion units of PET, HDPE, and PP containers per year.
Amcor Rigid Plastics, meanwhile, is one of the biggest makers of plastic packaging for food, personal and home care, and pharmaceuticals with 76 facilities worldwide. And its owner, the packaging supplier Amcor, operates around 300 sites and employs more than 35,000 people.