Brambles acquires Pallecon

Brambles Limited has signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire Pallecon, a leading provider of intermediate bulk container (IBC) solutions in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, for €135 million.

Pallecon operates mainly in western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, providing IBCs primarily for the transportation of liquids in the food, cosmetics and chemical industries. It has been operating for over 30 years and has a pool of about 180,000 IBCs worldwide.

“Pallecon has outstanding customer relationships, good growth prospects and a record of generating strong financial returns,” said Brambles CEO Tom Gorman. “It will complement our plans to grow our IBC operations worldwide, in line with our strategy of expanding our pooling solutions operations into a broader range of service lines and customer segments.”

Pallecon generated sales revenue of €53 million in the 12 months ended 30 September 2012, with compound annual sales growth in excess of 7% over the three calendar years to 31 December 2011. The company’s EBITDA and EBIT margins averaged 33% and 18% respectively over the same period.

Pallecon is a division of CEVA Logistics. Pallecon’s existing senior management team have agreed with Brambles to remain with the business under Brambles’ ownership.