July 14, 2016 Updated 7/14/2016
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Robbie Manufacturing Inc. Robbie Manufacturing makes flexible packaging used on-site for stores and shrink-wrap film.
Canadian media and printing conglomerate Transcontinental Inc. has boosted its flexible packaging business with another acquisition, its third in the sector since 2014.
The Montreal-based firm announced June 30 that it bought Robbie Manufacturing Inc. in Lenexia, Kan., for undisclosed terms. Robbie employs more than 175 and had annual sales of $ 50 million in its most recent fiscal year.
The deal lands Transcontinental into two new market segments — on-site packaging film for grocery stores and shrink-wrap packaging for consumer products manufacturers that combine different products in a multipack for display on retail shelves, Transcontinental spokeswoman Katherine Chartrand said in a phone interview. Robbie also sells packaging to food processors.
Transcontinental already had been supplying flexible packaging to food processors as a result of two prior purchases. Last year it acquired Ultra Flex Packaging Corp., a converter making purchased film into bags, pouches and other flexible packaging. In 2014 it bought Capri Packaging of Clinton, Mo.
Robbie Manufacturing Inc. Robbie’s stretch film products.
The three acquisitions added pro forma annual sales of about $ 194 million when Transcontinental bought them. The Montreal company’s overall sales including printing, publishing and digital media amount to about C$ 2 billion (US$ 1.54 billion) per year.
“This acquisition is great news for the ongoing development of our flexible packaging division, an important area of growth for the corporation,” noted Transcontinental President and CEO Francois Olivier in a news release.
Chartrand said the Robbie and Capri plants are near each other and could be integrated.
“Transcontinental’s vast entrepreneurial experience will undoubtedly help Robbie Manufacturing grow and remain a supplier of choice for its customers,” said Robbie co-founder and CEO Irv Robinson in a news release.
