Visy applies to buy Alto

An Australian firm is eyeing up the Alto and Vertex plastics businesses.

Visy Industrial Plastics NZ, which is a direct subsidiary of Australia's Salvage Pty, and part of Richard Pratt's Visy empire, has applied to the Commerce Commission for clearance to buy Vertex and Alto.

Vertex and Alto make and supply PET bottles, rigid plastic non-beverage containers, closures and extruded sheet and thermoformed plastic containers.

Vertex was taken over last year by Alto's majority shareholders, Masthead Equities, and last week rebranded to Alto.

Alto's managing director Mark Wheeler said last week that further consolidation was needed within the New Zealand marketplace to create a company of scale to cope with increased competition.

"The merging of Alto and Vertex was the first stage of this journey and plans are afoot for further consolidation," he said.

Mr Wheeler said local manufacturers lacked scale in the global marketplace and sometimes struggled to be competitive.

"If we are not progressive in this regard, cheap imported goods will erode our manufacturing base," Mr Wheeler said.

- NZPA