An international conglomerate headquartered in London has apparently acquired one of Southwestern Michigan’s oldest and most successful agribusiness firms even as that company continues to grow through an expansion of its own headquarters in Riverside north of Benton Harbor.
Several investment sites including MarketWatch, Proactive Investors and the Motley Fool are saying that London-based Bunzl, plc, had announced their first quarter financial results and included in their report the acquisition of both Monte Package in Hagar Township and QS Nederland, a hygiene services company.
Monte Package Company has been manufacturing packaging supplies for the produce industry in Michigan’s Great Southwest for more than 92 years and just last November launched a 3,600 square foot expansion at its Riverside headquarters.
London’s Bunzl, plc provides food packaging, cleaning and hygiene supplies, personal protective equipment and carrier bags to a number of industry. The company is focused and successful in international distribution and outsourcing, supporting businesses worldwide with broad range of products essential to their customers successful business operations. Bunzl Distribution, the largest division of Bunzl, plc, is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.
Monte Package Company is a 92-year old family-owned company with manufacturing, shipping, receiving and warehouse operations in the Hagar Township community of Riverside. I’ve reached out to company President Tony Monte regarding the sale, but have yet to hear back from him.
In November, while working side-by-side with the economic development team at Cornerstone Alliance on a tax abatement request for their $140,000 investment in the corporate expansion project, projected excitement about that project enabling his company to move forward into their 93rd year of service to the agriculture industry throughout the United States. At that time he said, “Staying in Hagar Township is vital to the success of our employees, customers and Monte Package Company as a whole.”
The company has the largest line of containers for the produce industry in the entire United States with a product line that includes wire-bound crates, wet service cartons, orchard bins and picking accessories, among others. In addition to the Hagar Township facility and headquarters, Monte has distribution centers in Benton Harbor and both Boynton Beach and Lakeland in Florida.
Financial reporters quoted Bunzl CEO Frank van Zanten as saying, “The purchase of Monte has further enhanced our business in North America serving the agriculture sector while the acquisition of QS complements and extends our existing cleaning & hygiene supplies business in the Netherlands.”
Bunzl was founded in 1940 and reports current revenues of more than $9-billion dollars. They last reported 16,285 employees and is a constituent component of London’s FTSE 100, an index similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
As of Friday night, April 20, 2018, Bunzl’s own corporate website does not include the acquisition or even the latest quarterly financial report in its corporate governance and investor areas, nor is there a current update among the press release archives.
None of the financial sites reporting on the acquisition have included any financial terms which may well remain private until further notice. Stay tuned.
