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Carter Holt Harvey considers further packaging consolidation

By Neil Merrett, 08-Feb-2007

Auckland-based firm Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) is set to further increase its presence in the global beverage packaging sector following the acquisition of International paper's North American beverage assets.

It was announced this month that the group had completed the purchase of International paper's North American beverage packing operations, and were interested in a further move for their remaining packaging assets.

As a result, CHH will take control of a number of production facilities throughout the US and Canada including International Paper's gable-top beverage converting facilities and the Evergreen packaging company.

Along with its North American operations, International Paper also owns beverage packaging subsidiaries in China, South Korea and Taiwan, and a number of joint ventures in Latin America, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

Though these assets are not included with the current deal, International Paper added that it expected they would be sold to CHH at a later date during the first financial quarter.

The sale highlights the growing appetite amongst Asia Pacific companies to enter into the dynamic US and European beverage packaging industry.

Last year, Australian firm Amcor revealed that it had managed to offset declining revenues from its cardboard operations through increased sales of its beverage products in the US and Europe.

This saw the group - which is already the world's largest producer of plastic bottles - increase its sales throughout the sector.

Of this increase, aluminium beverage cans proved a particularly strong segment with sales rising 6 per cent, though the company also reported strong sales of glass wine bottles which also performed well.