Berry Plastics buying Pliant Corporation

Injection molder and thermoformer Berry Plastics has announced plans to buy Pliant Corporation after Pliant emerges from bankruptcy.

According to a press release from Evansville, Ind.-based Berry Plastics, the company will get 25 per cent of the equity of Pliant as part of a U.S. Bankruptcy Court-approved reorganization plan, and then acquire the remaining 75 per cent of the common stock available.

Berry Plastics will operate Pliant as an additional operating division.

Pliant Corporation is a producer of value-added film and flexible packaging products for personal care, medical, food, industrial and agricultural markets. Pliant operates 18 manufacturing facilities around the world, and employs approximately 2,900 people, with annual net sales of US$1.1 billion for 2008. The company has Canadian operations in Toronto and Orillia, Ont. 

“Pliant Corporation brings to Berry an important group of customers, employees, manufacturing locations and products,” said Ira Boots, chairman and CEO of Berry Plastics. “Their film product line enhances Berry’s current offering with innovation and broader market appeal. Berry’s rigid plastic packaging offering will be extended with the addition of Pliant’s flexible packaging. With Berry acquiring Pliant, customers will be better served with a financially strengthened full service company.”

The transaction is anticipated to close by the end of the year.