SPX and Smurfit Kappa hail significance of takeovers

Processing specialist SPX Corp and packaging player Smurfit Kappa both completed takeovers this week as they seek to expand their reach in Europe and South America respectively.

US-based SPX announced Wednesday that its Flow Technology division had bought Seital S.r.l, an Italian supplier of disk centrifuges – separators and clarifiers – to the global food and beverage sectors.

The company, based in a 3,000 square meter plant in Santorso, also manufactures rotary brushes strainers and hydrocyclones, as well as standardizers – with applications in the dairy, wine, beverage and essential oils.

Seital, formed in 1983, has a workforce of around 50.

No financial details surrounding the transaction were disclosed.

SPX said the acquisition would help its spur growth across its operations as Seital exports to over 80 countries.

"Seital is a very well-respected manufacturer of high quality separators, clarifiers and other components that play a critical role in a wide array of food and beverage processing systems and other flow processes," said Don Canterna, segment president, SPX Flow Technology. "When combined with SPX's global resources and market capabilities, this acquisition creates growth opportunities across our food and beverage systems and product portfolios."

Smurfit Kappa expands South American ops

 Smurfit Kappa Bag-in-Box announced the takeover of Baguin, an Argentinian bag-in-box specialist.

The company, which supplies into both the food and pharmaceutical industries, covers the whole of Latin America. – particularly Argentina, Peru, Chile and Brazil.

The deal will enable SK to reinforce its position in Latin America and expand its product range and boosts its ultra-clean facilities to six – with the others being located in France, Italy, Spain, Russia and Canada, said the company.

Baguin was founded in 1992 in Buenos Aires and has currently employs 120. . The factory covers 4,000 square meteres and is equipped with several modern production lines for the manufacture of bags, as well as injection machines, film extrusion machines and recycling lines.

It has a product portfolio of more than 220 and includes bags (ranging from 750 ml up to 1000 litres capacity), taps, films and filling systems,.

Baguin is certified ISO 9001 and all the products are manufactured according to HACCP standards thus guaranteeing hygiene and quality. In the 20 years of existence, Baguin has developed its activity in nine Latin American countries, with its main markets in Argentina, Peru, Chile and Brazil, and is focused on continued expansion.

Smurfit Kappa Bag-in-Box is a division of the Smurfit Kappa Group, a major in paper based packaging with 40,000 employees worldwide and an annual turnover of over €7bn.