Private equity firm takes stake in Dutch packaging maker CurTec

Production hall at the CurTec plant in Rijen, Netherlands

Private equity firm Bencis Capital is extending its foothold in the packaging sector with the purchase of a stake in Netherlands-based plastic crates and drums producer CurTec International.

Bencis Capital, headquartered in Amsterdam, has formed SPP Solutions, a takeover vehicle through which it plans to acquire an undisclosed number of shares in the moulder CurTec of Rijen.

The CurTec share acquisition has been given the green light by Germany’s mergers and acquisitions competition authority Bundeskartellamt which works closely with the authority in the Netherlands.

CurTec, created in 1991 from the former Curver Plastics, manufactures a range of crates and barrels with tamper-evident closures under clean room conditions for the pharmaceutical, speciality chemical, food and industrial sectors.

The company has a 130-strong workforce and, outside the Netherlands it maintains sales offices in six countries.

Bencis Capital, founded in 1999, invests in companies in Belgium and the Netherlands where it has offices in Brussels and Amsterdam. Its portfolio comprises 14 businesses employing around 4,250 with combined turnover of about €1.1bn.

Companies include the Dutch packaging films producer Apeldoorn Flexible Packaging and a Belgian vinyl windows manufacturer Winsol of Izegem, Belgium.

In recent years, CurTec has been investing in new equipment and process improvements at its Rijen plant.

One aim there has been to improve energy consumption. From 2012, the company began to upgrade and replace part of its production machinery. Four high energy injection machines were replaced by the three energy-efficient units and a hybrid blow moulding line.

Early last year, the firm launched the three new Arburg injection moulding machines, alongside the plant’s blow moulding line. All of the machines are fitted with the latest technology and a six-axis robot allows products to pass smoothly through the production process.