Ball moves into personal care packaging with Neuman acquisition
Neuman has production facilities in Virginia and Quebec that produce aluminum disks or slugs used in premium packaging for the personal care segment, together with the household, beverage and food industries.
The disks and slugs are the starting material from which extruded aerosol cans, beverage bottles, aluminum collapsible tubes and technical impact extrusions are all manufactured.
Big name in slugs
Neuman is one of the biggest players in North America for this segment of the packaging business and in 2009 it reported sales of approximately $128m.
The company will become a part of the much bigger Ball Corporation, which in 2009 had sales in excess of $7.3bn and employed 14,000 workers worldwide.
Neither the specific terms of the contract, nor the price that Ball has paid to acquire the business have been revealed.
Neuman becomes a part of food and household packaging
However, Ball did reveal that the 180 strong staff employed at the existing Neuman production facilities would now become a part of Ball’s metal food and household packaging segment.
“This strategic acquisition is an investment by Ball in a business that has technology to access new markets and opportunities to grow Ball's packaging platform," said Raymond Seabrook, executive vice president and chief operating officer, global packaging operations.
Ball has traditionally focused its business on the food and beverage packaging sector, but the acquisition could provide further opportunities for it to expand into the personal segment as part of its aims to diversify the business.
