Carter Holt buys Aussie box firm

By Mark Reynolds

Carter Holt Harvey has bought a business in Australia that will provide a springboard for expanding its packaging operations across the Tasman.

The Australian company, corrugated box maker Stone Containers, has manufacturing facilities in Melbourne and Sydney and employs about 240 people. It produced 45,000 tonnes of corrugated box material last year and supplies about 4 per cent of the Australian box market.

The chief executive of packaging for Carter, Ian Unwin, said the purchase gave his company the ability to provide a complete packaging service in Australia and New Zealand.

The company now has a growing presence in all major packaging sectors on both sides of the Tasman, including carton, cup, corrugated packaging and plastic products.

Although Carter Holt is not revealing what it paid for Stone, it is understood to be significantly less than the $A50 million to $A60 million that Australian packaging and paper group Visy Industries offered this year.

Visy pulled its offer after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission signalled that it would block the takeover because it was likely to remove an independent player from an industry where barriers to new entry were substantial.

Visy and its rival Amcor each have about 45 per cent of the Australian corrugated box market and compete with Carter Holt in New Zealand.