www.signatureflexible.com
www.signatureflexible.com
www.actionpackagingfilms.com
www.chromaticlabels.com

Signature and Action Flexible Packaging (SAP) has been formed to continue providing innovative products to customers in a wide range of markets. The company is the result of H.I.G Capital’s growth investments in two leading flexible package printing converters: Action Packaging and Signature Flexible Packaging.

H.I.G has combined Signature and Action to form a full-service provider of flexible food and consumer packaging solutions. In doing so, H.I.G appointed industry veteran John Attayek to serve as CEO of SAP, where he will focus on building upon the company’s customer-centric approach and commitment to its employees.

Attayek was most recently CEO of Inovar Packaging Group, and he previously held leadership roles with Tapp Label Technologies and York Label. “John is a proven leader, and we are extremely excited to have him join the SAP team,” states Ryan Kaplan, managing director at H.I.G. Capital.

H.I.G Capital is a global alternative investment firm with $45 billion of equity capital under management.

Based outside Los Angeles, SAP offers small-to-medium sized consumer packaged goods customers a one-stop solution for flexible packaging needs across snacks, meats, candies and baked goods. The company’s facilities provide consistent quality, faster lead times and a high-touch service model, which supports low minimum
order quantities. 

With the move, H.I.G. is partnering with Howard Applebaum, Adrian Backer and Federico Giacobbe, as well as the current management team, to provide capital and resources to take advantage of the company’s significant strategic growth initiatives and substantial consolidation opportunities represented by the fragmented flexible packaging industry.

Applebaum, CEO of Action, states, “This is a very exciting new chapter for our company and a strong endorsement for Action, Signature and our highly talented team.”

The growth has not stopped there, either. SAP recently acquired Chromatic Labels, which is headquartered in Irvine, CA. Chromatic provides flexible packaging, shrink sleeves and labels to short-run, high-SKU count customers, who encompass beverage, nutraceutical, cosmetic and food end markets. Contributing significantly to Chromatic’s success is its commitment to quality and customer service, a philosophy it shares with SAP. The combination will allow SAP and Chromatic to provide a full-service flexible packaging product set to further meet the needs of its growing customer base.

“We look forward to the strategic alliance of SAP and Chromatic,” says Peter Pitchess, owner and CEO, Chromatic. “The combined company will offer an unmatched regional scale and comprehensive product offering for our customers while continuing to offer high-quality packaging solutions.”  

“SAP and Chromatic management are comprised of seasoned executives with deep talent and breadth of experience within the flexible packaging industry, who are committed to accelerating growth and delivering outstanding value and service to customers,” adds Kaplan.

M&A will continue to play a pivotal role for the SAP organization going forward, too. “While always seeking organic growth avenues and new markets and products that fit flexible packaging, M&A will play a big part in building our enterprise and rounding out our service offerings to our valued customers and business partners,” explains Attayek. “Chromatic was a strategic and geographically opportunistic acquisition that filled a narrow web converting hole in SAP’s wide-web product offering. We are focused on custom flexible packaging of all sizes and quantities as we seek to round out our service, product and capability offerings.

“We are actively pursuing strategic acquisitions that are complementary to our flexible packaging platform and are also in the midst of a complete rebranding effort to be released in the market by year’s end, along with an updated web presence for the combined entities,” adds Attayek.

With the acquisition of Chromatic Labels, SAP now operates three plants for a total of approximately 150,000 square feet. The SAP team includes 130 employees, led by Attayek, in conjunction with the executive management team that is made up of the prior business owners.

“Chromatic represents a natural expansion of SAP’s capabilities on the West Coast,” states Kaplan. “Peter and the Chromatic team have built an impressive business over the past 15 years. SAP is thrilled to share this significant next step in our growth plan together with them.”

Attayek does not see the trend of M&A slowing down either. In addition to playing a significant role for SAP, the flexible package printing industry should continue to see more of these types of moves in the future.

“This type of activity has had and will continue to have a large impact and presence in the industry,” comments Attayek. “Consolidation is happening in and all around our industry.  We strive to become a big company with small company values, and the key is to keeping with a regional service model while scaling to a size significant enough to compete with larger, more national and international firms.”

According to Attayek, the bright future of flexible packaging positions SAP to excel in its key market segments. “We’re in a growing and thriving space, with significant tailwinds relative to where the consumer product market is going with more craft and boutique brands, heavy SKU counts and fast service and turnaround metrics for speed to market and convenience,” he says.

For SAP, this flexo business features multiple bag and pouch capabilities, and the company will be expanding into digital in the near future for a full turnkey offering to our customers covering narrow, mid, and wide-web converting capabilities in bags, pouches and flexible packaging.

“I’m extremely impressed with the companies Howard, Adrian, Federico and Peter have built,” concludes Attayek. “I look forward to building on their legacy and creating a dynamic flexible packaging platform.”