The Siegwerk Group, of Siegburg, Germany, has announced plans to acquire the packaging ink division of SICPA Holding SA. With consolidated total net sales of €613 million in the packaging ink segment, the Siegwerk Group would emerge as the world’s second-largest manufacturer of packaging ink. Siegwerk would move up to become one of the world’s top five ink manufacturers with consolidated total net sales of €773 million. Regulatory approval is expected from anti-trust authorities in the course of the summer months.
SICPA, the global leader in inks for banknotes and documents of value, will focus on its successful security inks and systems businesses for governments and industry.
“The acquisition is a major step towards Siegwerk consolidating its worldwide presence and positioning as a global player,” says Herbert Forker, president of Siegwerk Group. “We can now supply globally operating converters as well as national clients in every country in the world and support them in application engineering. This also makes us an interesting partner for major brand companies.”
“We have tremendous respect for the SICPA organization, its people, products and processes,” says Dan McDowell, president of Siegwerk North America. “SICPA will add additional capacities and capabilities in the form of products, geographical coverage in terms of sales and service and manufacturing. There is also the notion of customer relations in which our two organization seem to be very complementary with little overlap.”
The new group will possess an enhanced capability to meet worldwide located customer requirements. Siegwerk Group is well positioned in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, North Africa, Southeast Asia and, since the purchase of CCI in December 2003, also in the USA.
SICPA’s Packaging Ink Division supplements this positioning with its strong presence in Southern Europe, Turkey, Scandinavia and Russia including its neighboring states, South Africa, North America, South America as well as in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region, including China, India and Australia.
On the product side, the expertise of Siegwerk Group in the areas of film and foil printing (flexible packaging for foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and hygiene items), paper labels (high-quality labels for bottled drinks) and wallpaper printing is being expanded by the know-how of SICPA in tobacco packaging and foil labels, as well as in the corrugated board sector and with other applications.
“By merging both companies, we will be able to provide an even wider range of high-quality products in the future,” says Peter Heimerzheim, Siegwerk’s corporate spokesman. “The expertise of both companies with packaging ink for flexible packaging and tobacco is supplemented by SICPA’s packaging know-how with tobacco, labels, industrial applications and corrugated