Irish-owned global packaging company Zeus has acquired Swanline Group and its sister company BoxMart, putting it on track to be the largest sole shareholder packaging company in the world by 2023.
Zeus is a global packaging company with a strong focus on sustainability and innovation. Established by Brian O’Sullivan in 1998, Zeus has 47 locations worldwide, including Ireland, the UK, Germany, Spain, Poland, Eastern Europe, New Zealand, Canada, China and Australia. The company provide a diverse range of products and supply options into a wide variety of markets. Customers of Zeus range across sectors and include ABP, Harrods, Musgrave, Ryanair and McDonalds.
Swanline Group is a trade-only supplier of paper-based materials, print and conversion services for packaging and point-of-sale applications. Established in 2001, Swanline is headquartered in Stone, Staffordshire, with four purpose-built sites housing large format infrastructure, screen and digital printing and converting operations, as well as extensive warehousing and distribution capabilities. BoxMart is an award-winning packaging supplier based in Shenstone, Staffordshire, offering UK-made gift, retail and e-commerce packaging. Clients include Lush, Fever Tree and Moet Hennessy. It also operates an online store for the purchase of stock packaging products. Combined, Swanline and BoxMart have a total revenue in excess of €30 million.
As well as strengthening Zeus’s position in the retail, food and beverage, and e-commerce packaging sectors, the addition of these two acquisitions will keep Zeus on target to achieve half a billion Euro annualised revenue next year. Forecasted annualised revenues for Zeus in 2022 are expected to exceed more than €400 million.
In May 2022, Zeus acquired Canadian agricultural supply business, Agri-Flex. The agreement for Zeus to acquire Swanline and BoxMart is worth in excess of €25 million. These follow on from a €40 million, two-year programme of strategic acquisitions that concluded in February 2021. Over the past nine months, Zeus has added a further €75 million of revenue through acquisitions.
Zeus CEO Keith Ockenden said, ‘It is a significant day for Zeus as we continue our current investment strategy with the acquisition of two very strong players in the UK packaging sector.
‘Swanline Group and BoxMart bring with them long-established customer bases, in-depth knowledge about their respective sectors, and dedicated diverse teams who are committed to serving their customers. As a combined entity, we have enhanced our reach and offering across the UK, with further opportunity to maximise efficiencies across our distribution and supply chains, whilst broadening our product and service offerings to our existing customers.’
Mr O’Sullivan added, ‘Our journey over the years has provided opportunities to strengthen our capability, widen our offering and learn new disciplines. The addition of these businesses into our family will complement the range of solutions we provide our customers, strengthen design, creativity and innovation within packaging and introduce a depth of experience within new sectors.’
