Liz Gyekye / packagingnews.co.uk

Bunzl posts H1 profit as it buys Canadian pack firm

Bunzl, the international distribution and food service packaging group, has posted a 13% increase in half-year profit and announced that it has completed the acquisition of a Canadian packaging business.

Its group revenue for the first half of 2011 increased to £2.442m (2010: £2.345m), an increase of 6%, which the firm said was driven by strong growth in North America, Continental Europe and the rest of the world.

Bunzl’s profit increased to £138.8m (2010: £125.1m).

In its half-year financial statement, Bunzl said that it acquired the Canadian pack firm called Netpak in July. The Vancouver-based firm is a packaging and equipment supplier to a variety of sectors throughout Canada, including fruit and vegetable growers.

Revenue in the year ended 30 June 2011 for Netpak, was C$12.4m and the gross assets acquired are estimated to be C$4m.

Speaking about the acquisition, chief executive Michael Roney said: “I am pleased that we have acquired Netpak as it complements the US-based Cool-Pak business, which we acquired last year, and adds further scale to our business supplying innovative packaging solutions for both growers and food retailers in North America.”

“Challenging trading environment”

Bunzl said that its UK operations continued to “face a challenging trading environment due to sluggish economic conditions, which in turn have affected our customers’ spending”. This has led to pressure on its sales with a 2% decline in revenue to £485.6m.

In contrast, revenue for its operations in North America rose 7% to £1.287m and its rest of the world sales increased by 8% to £143.6m.

Speaking about the results, Roney said: “In spite of the challenging global marketplace, Bunzl has once again produced another set of strong results. Our resilient business model has delivered improved organic growth operating margins, while operating results were bolstered by a good level of acquisition activity.

“Looking forward, we see additional opportunities for continued development both organically and through a promising pipeline of acquisitions which should enable the group to achieve further growth.”