Tuesday, January 19, 1999
Betts bought for $165M
Firm makes toothpaste tubes
BY MIKE BOYER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The former Courtaulds Packaging, whose U.S. operations are in Florence, has been acquired in a management-led buyout for about $165 million from Akzo Nobel N.V.
The new company, Betts Holdings Ltd., whose Florence operation is known as Betts USA Inc., is one of the largest manufacturers of toothpaste tubes in the world with sales of $160 million.
Betts is owned by eight senior managers led by Paul Mines, former head of British-based Courtaulds' laminated tube business, with funding by Schroder Ventures, a London-based investment bank.
Courtaulds Plc was acquired last summer by Akzo Nobel in the Netherlands for about $3.8 billion. Since then, Akzo has sold some of Courtaulds' businesses. Courtaulds architectural coatings, sold in the United States under the name Porter Paints, were acquired by PPG Industries Inc.
Tom Jonas, president of Betts USA, said the 62,000- square-foot Florence plant, opened in 1985, produces between 400 million and 500 million toothpaste tubes annually and employs 170.
Betts supplies tubes to health-care product manufacturers such as Colgate Palmolive, Unilever, SmithKlineBeecham and Glaxo Wellcome, but not Procter & Gamble Co., Mr. Jonas said.
Worldwide, Betts is the second largest manufacturer of toothpaste tubes and the world's largest maker of asthma inhalers. Mr. Jonas said the new owners are looking to expand the business by 20 percent over the next 18 months.
He said that could mean creating a second manufacturing site in the United States.
Mr. Mines is based at Betts Holdings' headquarters and research facility in Colchester, England.
In taking the name Betts, the new owners are returning to the name the company was known as before it was purchased by Courtaulds in 1958. William Betts was a 19th century Englishman who produced French brandy and later, metal product seals.
Besides plants in Colchester and Florence, Betts has plants in Warsaw, Poland; Surabaya, Indonesia; Goa, India, and Shanghai, China.
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