Ontario’s PCL Packaging up for sale

Oakville, Ont.-based polyethylene (PE) bag producer PCL Packaging Corp. is selling its Oakville facility, which employs approximately 120 people running 10 extrusion lines.

According to PCL’s CFO and treasurer Ian Bell, the company, which filed for protection from creditors in January, has been struggling financially for a number of reasons. “The rise of the Canadian dollar has had a big impact, by encouraging more competition from U.S. bag makers,” Bell told Canadian Plastics.

Another factor, he continued, is the Ontario government’s plan to cut plastic bag use by 50 per cent during the next four years. “The bag ban has put us in the position of having to struggle to justify our existence.”

The company’s customers include major retail chains Loblaw Cos., Sobeys Inc. and Zellers Inc. “Our mainstay product is a reusable pullbag, which competes very well against single-use plastics bags, but lately we’ve had trouble in getting the message about our products out,” Bell said.

The search for a buyer for the Oakville facility comes on the heels of the sale of the company’s four other plants. Inteplast Group Ltd. of Livingston, N.J., recently bought PCL plants in Delta, B.C., and North Dighton, Mass. The firm also agreed to buy the PCL plant in St. John, N.B. Last year, New York-based Trinity Packaging Corp. purchased PCL’s 44,000 square-foot facility in Pueblo, Colo.

“PCL has been up for sale for the past two years,” Bell said. “We would have liked to have sold it in its entirety to a single company, but haven’t been able to do that.”

“There are a number of potential buyers waiting in the wings [to purchase the Oakville plant],” he continued. “It’s certainly our hope that, whoever the buyer is, they will keep the company running.”