IMAP Italy (Vitale & Co.) advised Carton Pack on sale of the majority of the share capital to 21 Investimenti

Vitale & Co. assisted the shareholders of Carton Pack on sale of the majority of the share capital to 21 Investimenti.

Leone Family, who founded Carton Pack and that today manages the company, was looking for a partner able to help reach the next development phase, with a particular focus on foreign markets.

The transaction saw 21 Investimenti acquiring an 80% stake, with the Leone family keeping a 20% stake and Gianni Leone maintaining his role as CEO.

Founded in 1970, Carton Pack develops, manufactures and sells packaging products for the food industry, with a strong focus on innovative solutions for Fruit & Vegetable packaging.

Thanks to its unique and broad product range, a strong customer-centric approach as well as its remarkable innovation and product development capabilities, Carton Pack is the Italian leader in F&B packaging. Its market share within its reference market exceeds 20% and reaches peaks between 30% and 50% on certain high-value categories, such as grapes, strawberries, cherries, berries and tomatoes.

Carton Pack’s addressable market is characterized by high resilience as well as growth momentum thanks to both the rising consumption of healthy food and the increase in packaged produce on modern trade shelves. In the last three years Carton Pack delivered an average top-line growth of 8% per annum, with gross revenues reaching €M 80 in 2017, of which about 30% generated abroad.

21 Investimenti will strive to accelerate the company’s growth, supporting the management team, according to the following drivers:

- Organic growth: expand the customer base (especially in Central and Northern Italy) and product portfolio to closely related niches (dry food, dairy products), while reinforcing relationships with existing clients;

- International expansion: improve penetration and increase market share in existing foreign geographies (e.g. Spain and Greece), also through selected add-ons, and enter into new geographies offering interesting growth opportunities (e.g. Poland, Northern Africa).

21 Investimenti will also work towards reinforcing the Company’s management team as well as improving the company’s overall efficiency.

Alessandro Benetton, Founding Managing Partner of 21 Investimenti, commented

“We are enthusiastic to announce the second investment in Southern Italy of 21 Investimenti III and to support Carton Pack’s management in delivering a new phase of growth both domestically and internationally, by leveraging on Carton Pack’s expertise, technology and passion.”