In a recent announcement made by Huhtamaki it was mentioned that the company had entered into an agreement with regards to acquisition of Elif Holdings (Elif) which is a major manufacturer of sustainable flexible packaging having operations in Turkey and Egypt. The deal is expected to cost around USD 483 million.
With this move Huhtamaki has reinforced its position as a leading flexible packaging company in emerging markets. The acquisition also strengthens the company’s existing flexible packaging business in FMCG categories.
The acquisition expands Huhtamaki’s product portfolio to environmentally friendly packaging as 90% of Elif’s current product portfolio is recyclable and also contains product which are compostable. In 2020, Elif’s total sales were approximately USD 195 million. The company has two manufacturing facilities in Turkey and Egypt.
Flexible packaging films are mostly made of BOPP (Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene). The market size for flexible plastic packaging films stood at USD 160 billion in 2020 and is projected to grow at a healthy rate of 4.5%.
As per ChemAnalyst, “with the increasing demand for flexible plastic packaging films globally due to gradual replacement of other packaging materials and increasing preference for convenient packaging, the proposed acquisition of Elif by Huhtamaki is aimed at creating synergy towards capturing the demand growth in the flexible packaging market globally."
