CHICAGO – Five leading packaging companies based in North America and Europe will operate as one global plastics packaging company called Exopack Holdings Sarl. All five packaging companies are affiliated portfolio companies of Sun Capital Partners Inc.

The combined business will have aggregate revenues of more than $2.5 billion, 63 plants and 8,650 employees making Exopack Holdings the sixth-largest plastics packaging company in the world. The combined company will include Exopack, a US-based producer of flexible paper and plastic packaging and advanced coatings; Britton Group, a flexible plastic packaging manufacturer; PACCOR, the second-largest rigid plastic packaging company in Europe; Kobusch, a producer of tailor-made flexible and rigid packaging systems; and Paragon Print & Packaging, a leader in private-label packaging solutions in the United Kingdom. The brand names of the five businesses would remain in use by the combined company.

“This combination represents a natural next step in a process that began eight years ago to create a global packaging company with a solid foundation for future growth,” said Marc Leder, co-CEO of Sun Capital Partners. “Building on past collaborations between the companies, the combination will immediately achieve synergies and allow the combined company to more effectively pursue global business.”

The Exopack Holdings Sarl management team includes Jack Knott, who will serve as CEO; Mike Alger CFO; Dieter Bergner will be CEO of PACCOR (Global Rigid business); and Michael Cronin joins the team as CEO of the Global Flexibles business.

“By joining together to form this new entity, we will be better able to serve the needs of our global customers through a manufacturing base spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East and China that enhances our ability to deliver outstanding service,” Knott said. “The larger scale will enable us to accelerate the development and commercialization of new and differentiated products that offer our customers a competitive advantage.”