SMC acquires Australian bottler

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has scaled up its regional packaging business with the acquisition of South Australian bottler, Barossa Bottling Services Pty. Ltd. (Barossa).

Barossa is a specialist and independent contract wine bottling and packaging facility serving artisan wineries in Australia’s Barossa, Eden and Clare Valleys, Adelaide Hills and the Riverland.

The acquisition was made by San Miguel Yamamura Packaging International Ltd. (SMYPIL) through its Australian subsidiary, San Miguel Yamamura Australasia Pty Ltd.

With this acquisition, SMC’s packaging group expects the annual contribution of its Australian and New Zealand businesses to reach 300 million Australian dollars (P11.6 billion).

“We remain bullish on the Australasian market and will continue to look for bigger and better opportunities in that region. In the meantime, our Philippine operations will continue to expand to meet growing domestic and export demands,” SMC president Ramon Ang said in a statement.

Based on its website, Barossa offers integrated winery services from bulk wine arrival to finished goods distribution. It operates one filling line that runs at around 2,700 bottles per hour. It has tank storage capacity on site using a storage vessels for around 130 kiloliters. It has likewise developed a niche in the filling and labelling of large-format bottles including 1.5, 3 -and 6-liter bottles.

Prior to this acquisition, SMC’s packaging group had 13 international packaging facilities located in China (glass, plastic and paper packaging products), Vietnam (glass and metal), Malaysia (composite, plastic films, woven bags and a packaging research center) and Australia (glass, trading, wine closures and bottle caps) and New Zealand (plastics and trading).

As part of SMC packaging arm’s continued venture in the Australasian region, the SMYPIL group acquired the assets of Endeavour Glass Packaging Ltd. in New Zealand, and 100 percent shares in Portavin in Australia earlier this year.

The packaging group also took over the cork and wine closure business of Vinocor Worldwide Direct Lty. Ltd. in 2015.