UPM RAFLATAC BUYS METAMARK

UPM Raflatac has bought graphics media manufacturer Metamark, but there will be no change to local representation, with Ball & Doggett continuing to supply the Metamark materials.

UPM Raflatac paid just shy of A$300m for the UK-based Metamark, the company acquired to accelerate its drive into graphics media supplies. Metamark has annual sales of A$130m.

Metamark manufactures a range of substrates for display print, including self-adhesive colour films, signage vinyl, film for large-format printing, wrapping films, vehicle chevron kits, and overlaminates.

Metamark was established in 1992, and went through a p/e financed MBO in 2017.

It will join the UPM Raflatac Graphics division, which is the self adhesive business unit within UPM Raflatac. UPM is aE10.5bn business, with UPM Raflatc contributing E1.5bn of that.

Tim Kirchen, executive vice president, UPM Raflatac, said, “We’ve made a strategic decision to pursue global growth in Graphics both organically and through mergers and acquisitions. This acquisition marks an important milestone in our transformation journey accelerating our growth, enabling us to grow our scale and become a complete product and service provider in this attractive business. The combination of Metamark’s broad product portfolio with our existing sales and distribution network allows us to grow also outside of Europe. We warmly welcome our new colleagues and look forward to working together to serve our customers with an even stronger product portfolio.”