Plastics packaging machine merger as Brückner acquires PackSys (Updated Feb.2)

The purchase brings a number of new technologies to Brückner, which includes Brückner Maschinenbau, the market leader in systems for film stretching; Brückner Servtec, the business unit for customer service; and Kiefel, which makes thermoforming and plastics joining machinery. PackSys is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, and has manufacturing and assembly bases in Switzerland and Thailand as well as a software development centre in India. It employs about 300.

Brückner Group management described the takeover of PSG as a further significant step for the Group to strengthen its strategic footing and "attain a well-balanced product and business portfolio." In mid-2009 the company sold its blown film extrusion machinery business, Kiefel Extrusion, to a competitor, Reifenhäuser. Although neither Reifenhäuser nor Brückner officials revealed the price of the acquisition, it certainly gave Brückner a war chest.

Last summer, during a visit to Brückner by PlasticsToday.com, company management said they had the money and the will to make acquisitions that will allow the company to offer a wider range of products in the future to help overcome some of the cyclical nature of its main business areas. Axel von Wiedersperg, CEO, said the company then was eyeing eye on a number of strategic expansion prospects, and predicted 2-3 of these would be executed by 2015. The PackSys buy is the first.

PSG was sold by private equity investors. In a statement by the company, its management said the change of ownership, and Brückner's long-term perspective, would allow PSG "to enter in a number of larger, longer-term projects which will provide PSG with a new platform for growth, stability and innovation." Thom LeFevre, diretcor of sales and marketing at PackSys, told MPW that being part of Brückner will help his company accelerate its R&D, as it will have access to financial and engineering resources which were not possible when PackSys was a stand-alone company.