Deal is perfect fit for Robinson

ROBINSON, the injection moulded plastic packaging company, has sold a subsidiary which designs, manufactures and sells spirally wound paperboard containers to Sonoco.

The Chesterfield-based subsidiary, Robinson Paperboard Packaging, represented 24% of Robinson’s group revenues in 2010.

However, Robinson said it has not contributed to profits in the past five years since it lost a long standing major contract.

Packaging business Sonoco, which has bases in Hull and Deeside in Flintshire, require the surplus capacity at the Chesterfield plant to meet its own customer demands. Sonoco is a significant customer of Robinson for plastic packaging.

Robinson will use the £2.6m deal price to reduce bank debt. Assets included in the business include all customer contracts, employees, manufacturing equipment and stock other than certain specified assets defined in the acquisition agreement.

Sonoco will take a 15 year lease over the business’s site and factory buildings and will pay rent of £450,000 a year following a two-year rent free period.

Adam Formela, chief executive of Robinson, said: “This transaction represents a unique opportunity to enhance future prospects for the business and employees of Robinson Paperboard Packaging whilst allowing the company to focus on developing its plastics businesses in UK and Poland.”