Milan / Green­wich, Conn. — L Catter­ton, the world’s largest consu­mer products-focu­sed private equity firm, and Ambi­enta, the largest sustaina­bi­lity-focu­sed Euro­pean private equity fund, have part­ne­red to acquire Pibi­plast, a leader in the design and manu­fac­ture of cosme­tics and perso­nal care plas­tic pack­a­ging based in Correg­gio, Italy. — The Bosi family, foun­der and current owner of the company, will retain a mino­rity stake. No infor­ma­tion was provi­ded on the terms of the transaction.

Foun­ded in 1954 as a manu­fac­tu­rer of plas­tic pack­a­ging for the phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­try, Pibi­plast was a pioneer in the intro­duc­tion of envi­ron­men­tally friendly pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons. The company has contin­ued its specia­liza­tion in skin care and make-up through stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons and invest­ments in state-of-the-art tech­no­lo­gies. Today, Pibi­plast opera­tes four plants in nort­hern Italy and supplies more than 500 custo­mers in 35 count­ries. The company offers a wide range of products and custo­mi­zed solu­ti­ons for the cosme­tics indus­try, from well-known global brands to emer­ging inde­pen­dent companies.

The company is excel­lently posi­tio­ned to conti­nue its histo­ric growth in the future. Sales last year amoun­ted to over 60 million euros. While nume­rous eco-friendly, natu­ral and orga­nic products are emer­ging in response to consu­mer demand, the cosme­tics indus­try has been slow to embrace envi­ron­men­tally friendly pack­a­ging solutions.

Pibi­plast was a pioneer in the first wave of compa­nies to move away from highly pollu­ting mate­ri­als in the 1990s, repla­cing non-recy­clable plas­tics with recy­clable ones with better envi­ron­men­tal perfor­mance. The company has also taken steps to use more sustainable mate­ri­als such as biopla­s­tics and recy­cled plas­tics. Pibi­plast has a clear lead over the compe­ti­tion in terms of the use of highly recy­clable raw mate­ri­als (63% at Pibi­plast vs. 28% market average).

Toge­ther with L Catter­ton and Ambi­enta, Pibi­plast aims to acce­le­rate its sustaina­bi­lity stra­tegy by deve­lo­ping and promo­ting inno­va­tive pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons based on envi­ron­men­tally friendly mate­ri­als to meet incre­asing custo­mer demand for redu­ced envi­ron­men­tal impact. Andrea Otta­viano, Mana­ging Part­ner of L Catter­ton Europe, says: “Sustaina­bi­lity has incre­asingly become a driving force for change in the cosme­tics indus­try, and we have chosen Pibi­plast as a leader in envi­ron­men­tally friendly pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons. We look forward to working with Ambi­enta to support the company’s growth through heavy invest­ment in R&D and capi­tal invest­ment. We further believe that the highly frag­men­ted market pres­ents meaningful oppor­tu­ni­ties to expand Pibiplast’s product offe­ring through bolt-on acqui­si­ti­ons and streng­then its inter­na­tio­nal presence.”

Mauro Roversi, Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer at Ambi­enta, comm­ents: “It is a great oppor­tu­nity for Ambi­enta to help Pibi­plast tap into the growing demand for more sustainable pack­a­ging and posi­tion it for the excep­tio­nal future pros­pects of the cosme­tics and perso­nal care indus­try. Our goal is to estab­lish Pibi­plast as the undis­pu­ted leader in sustainable cosme­tic pack­a­ging. We are confi­dent that by working with L Catter­ton and Pibiplast’s outstan­ding manage­ment team, we can achieve our goals.”

Gior­gio Bosi, CEO of Pibi­plast, adds: “We are exci­ted to work with our new part­ners to take Pibi­plast into a new phase of growth and deve­lo­p­ment by expan­ding our product port­fo­lio and going inter­na­tio­nal. Both L Catter­ton and Ambi­enta have exem­plary track records in buil­ding leading brands and busi­nesses. Toge­ther, we will realize Pibiplast’s stra­te­gic goals while stay­ing true to our mission and core values.”

About L Catterton
With more than $15 billion in equity across six fund stra­te­gies and 17 offices world­wide, L Catter­ton is the largest end-user product-focu­sed private equity firm in the world. L Catterton’s team of more than 160 invest­ment and busi­ness profes­sio­nals works with manage­ment teams around the world to execute stra­te­gic plans to drive growth, lever­aging deep product and market cate­gory insights, opera­tio­nal excel­lence and a broad network of “thought part­ner­ships.” Since 1989, the company has reali­zed over 200 invest­ments in leading consu­mer brands. — L Catter­ton was crea­ted through the part­ner­ship of Catter­ton, LVMH and Groupe Arnault. www.lcatterton.com.

About Ambi­enta
Ambi­enta is a leading Euro­pean private equity firm with offices in Milan, Düssel­dorf and London. Focu­ses on growth invest­ments in indus­trial compa­nies that focus on trends in envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. Ambi­enta mana­ges the world’s largest capi­tal fund in this sector, with more than €1 billion, and has alre­ady comple­ted 27 resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal invest­ments across Europe. With indus­trial and manage­ment exper­tise as well as global indus­try cont­acts, Ambi­enta actively contri­bu­tes to the deve­lo­p­ment of its port­fo­lio compa­nies. For more info, visit www.ambientasgr.com.