Essentra plc has today successfully completed its $455m acquisition of Clondalkin SPD, a deal which transforms it into a global leader in pharmaceutical and beauty specialist packaging. The deal opens up the USA, the world’s largest pharmaceutical and beauty packaging market, to Essentra as well as boosting its existing presence across Europe.

The pharmaceutical and beauty packaging sector was estimated at $50bn in 2011 and is forecast to reach $79bn by 2018 as the global population gets older, richer and more health aware.

Essentra plc, headquartered in the UK and listed on the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 250 market, announced the deal last November and confirmed it had completed following regulatory approval. The acquisition adds 2,400 people in 24 facilities, including nine in North America as well as in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands, to Essentra’s existing network. The acquisition will also broaden the suite and flexibility of services Essentra can offer, complementing its existing portfolio of folding cartons, product literature, labels, foil, tapes and authentication capabilities.

Clondalkin SPD’s customer base includes the leading global pharmaceutical and health & personal care companies and half of its revenues come from its operations in the USA.

Malcolm Waugh, Managing Director, Health & Personal Care Packaging, said

“The combination of Essentra’s existing packaging capabilities with Clondalkin’s Specialist Packaging Division is a great example of our ambition to expand our capabilities in attractive end-markets, both geographically and from a product perspective. Bringing together the knowledge, expertise and skills from our combined network represents a fantastic opportunity to respond even better to our customers’ needs, and I am very excited to be leading the team going forward.”

The resulting scale and breadth of Essentra’s Health & Personal Care Packaging activities has led to the creation of a separate business unit. This will drive progressive performance and add value through sound strategic thinking with key partners, informed by market and customer trends analysis.