Impress buys into UK food can market

The purchased unit, Alcan Packaging Sutton (APS) has a particular strength in low-cost draw and wall iron technology for food cans, Impress stated in a release. The UK food can market is thesecond largest in Europe.

Changing lifestyles have had an effect on the whole food market, including canned foods. A trend towards snacking rather than formal meals and the growth of single person households have increaseddemand for single-serve portions. Food processors have been using a variety of packaging to enclose these smaller portion sizes, including easy-open cans.

APS supplies cans for the food and petfood markets. It also makes printed speciality containers. The unit has annual sales of about €60m.

Impress specialises in metal packaging for seafood. It is the European leader in cans for dry foods and holds the second largest slice of the European processed food can market. The company alsosupplies cans for fruit and vegetables, soups and ready meals from fourteen factories across Europe.

The company is based in Deventer, the Netherlands and has a worldwide turnover of €1.3bn. It has operations in Europe, North America, Japan and the Seychelles.

Impress' vice president Richard Moore did not respond to questions from FoodProductionDaily.com by publishing time.

Since 2002 Alcan has been expanding and restructuring its packaging division, which supplies the food, pharmaceuticals, medical, beauty and tobacco markets. The UK operation was sold as part ofAlcan's restructuring of its food and beverage packaging operations. In July customers of Alcan's plastic bottle business in the food sector were put on notice that the company had plans to sell itsoperations as part of the restructuring.

The company plans to concentrate its food business on the more lucrative flexible packaging market. World demand for converted flexible packaging is forecast to grow by about seven per cent to$53.5bn this year according to Freedonia, a market research group.