San Miguel adds Auckland plastics factory to global empire

Giant Manila-based brewer San Miguel and a Japanese partner are buying majority control of Australian family-owned Cospak, a packaging company with a plastics manufacturing unit in Auckland.

The $A50 million deal will give San Miguel Yamamura Packaging International a 65% stake in Cospak, which owns the Premier Plastics Group in East Tamaki as well as a Cospak sales operation.

Premier Plastics was established in 1970 and is a manufacturer and supplier of custom packaging for the personal care, cosmetic, health care, pharmaceutical, veterinary and associated industries. An associated company, Superior Plastics, specialises in blow moulding larger items for chemicals and powders.

Cospak's owner, Jim Knox, will relinquish his chairman's role but remain a director with a 35% stake.

“We are the largest packaging distributor in Australasia supplying small to medium-sized companies,” Cospak said. It had $A120 million in revenue in 2008-09.

In a statement, San Miguel Yamamura says it "hopes to make the Cospak Group the vehicle for its Australasian and rapidly growing export business."

Cospak also has manufacturing operations in Australia and trading outposts in South Africa and Italy.

San Miguel Yamamura, a joint venture of San Miguel and Japan's Nihon Yamamura Glass, has packaging businesses in Malaysia, China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

San Miguel is one of Asia’s biggest brewers and the Philippines’ largest company with revenues of $US5 billion. It has more than 100 major manufacturing plants in Asia and interests ranging from packaging and food to telecommunications and oil refining.