ALPLA acquires South African plastic scrap consumer

Austria-based plastic packaging manufacturer and recycling firm the ALPLA Group has acquired Durban, South Africa-based Verigreen Packaging. That company makes recycled-content bottles and canisters for lubricants such as engine oils.

ALPLA Group says the lubricants division of Verigreen has a workforce of 25 employees at its site in Durban. “This acquisition is the perfect fit for our strategy,” comments Mike Resnicek, managing director of Sub-Saharan Africa at ALPLA. “It offers us an inroad into a market segment in which we have not been present in southern Africa until now, as well as generating synergies for our existing customers and giving us opportunities to further diversify our portfolio.”

In 2017, ALPLA acquired Boxmore Packaging, a maker of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, PET preforms and caps. A production facility and a regional head office tied to that acquisition is currently under construction near Johannesburg, says ALPLA. There is another former Boxmore production facility near Cape Town.

The acquisition of Verigreen Packaging adds a plant in the country’s third-largest city, Durban, to ALPLA’s regional portfolio. Outside of Africa, ALPLA Group says it has “a wealth of experience in the production of packaging for lubricants.”

On its website, Verigreen publicizes its used of plastic scrap in its production methods, and describes its “Supa Mama Women in Recycling” program, which since 2012 has “successfully empowered more than 300 women” to collect, sort and earn a living via plastic recycling, according to Verigreen.