Irving Place Capital, a middle-market private equity firm, has signed a purchase agreement to acquire Alpha Packaging, a blow molder of plastic bottles and jars for the nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and personal care markets.
Irving Place Capital is investing in partnership with Alpha’s current management team, led by president and chief executive officer Dave Spence and chief operating officer Dan Creston.
The transaction is expected to close in September of 2010.
Alpha, which is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, manufactures plastic bottles and jars at five manufacturing facilities located throughout the US, as well as a recently-opened plant in the Netherlands.
Stonebridge Partners of White Plains, New York, fueled the growth of Alpha with significant capital investments that allowed the company to triple in size during its investment period.
Spence says: “I am enormously proud of the business we have grown over the last 25 years and excited about the bright future that we have in front of us with Irving Place Capital. We are constantly looking for ways to support our customers’ growth by offering new products and technologies. We are committed to making our network of distributors and direct customers more competitive through additional investments in our existing operations and the completion of add-on acquisitions.”
Phil Carpenter, a senior managing director at Irving Place Capital, adds: “Alpha is an excellent platform for growth and is a great complement to our packaging portfolio. The company has a strong position in attractive end-markets, and we look forward to working closely with Alpha’s management team to further expand the business.”
Irving Place Capital’s other platform investments in packaging include Multi Packaging Solutions, Chesapeake and Mold-Rite Plastics.
