Amcor will boost its investment in ePac Flexible Packaging by US$45 million, signalling the global packaging giant’s confidence in the digitally-based flexible packaging market, and ePac’s ability to scale.
ePac, founded in 2016, is a fast growing global supplier of high quality, short run length digitally-based flexible packaging. Annual revenue has grown more than 600 percent over the past three years to a run rate of over $200 million. The investment will increase Amcor’s minority shareholding in ePac Holdings LLC.
Amcor first invested in the company back in April 2021, a sum of $10-15 million. Subsequent to the that, ePac has continued to expand, now with 25 sites globally, and set up shop in Australia, with a plant expansion after the first six months. Every ePac facility has an identical set-up, offering customers automated quoting, digital printing capabilities powered by HP Indigo digital presses, and fast service times across a number of product specifications.
Amcor’s executive vice president of Strategy and Development, Ian Wilson, said, “This additional investment reflects our confidence in ePac’s entrepreneurial team and their proven ability to rapidly scale in the high growth, often higher value short run segment."
Wilson said since Amcor's initial investment last year, it has been "deeply impressed" with ePac’s focused and innovative business model centered around deploying a very high level of digitalisation and customisation.
"ePac’s proven digital technologies enable the delivery of exceptional service levels and significantly reduced lead times. These specialisations are designed to meet the unique speed to market and service needs of locally based small to medium customers, skill sets that are highly transferable to areas of Amcor’s core business," Wilson said.
“We believe this investment complements Amcor’s existing digital activities and is well aligned with our vision that packaging will continue to become more personalised and more connected, as well as more sustainable,” Wilson continued. “This partnership is an excellent example of our objective to partner with high growth, visionary companies that provide opportunities for Amcor to leverage new innovations and value propositions while generating strong returns for Amcor shareholders. We are excited to be extending our relationship with a highly successful startup and continuing to support ePac’s future growth ambitions.”
