Sonoco has completed the divestiture of its Europe contract packaging business to a subsidiary of Prairie Industries Holdings, a Wisconsin-based contract packaging and contract manufacturing firm backed by The Halifax Group, a Washington, D.C.-based global investment firm, for $120 million in cash.
Sonoco’s Europe contract packaging business (Sonoco Poland Packaging Services Sp. z o.o.) produced net sales of approximately $300 million in 2019 and provides full-service custom packaging and supply chain management solutions to global consumer product goods companies through six contract packaging facilities in three locations and a warehouse all in Poland. The business has been part of Sonoco’s Display and Packaging segment and has approximately 2,600 employees.
The divestiture is part of Sonoco efforts to simplify its operating structure to focus on growing its core Consumer and Industrial packaging businesses. Sonoco said it would use the net proceeds from the sale along with available cash to pay off the Company’s remaining short-term debt to further improve its strong liquidity position.
Founded in 1899, Sonoco is a global provider of a variety of consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging, and displays and packaging supply chain services.
