Given the ease with which the good people of the UK can spend money online, it seems a shrewd move for Glasgow’s Macfarlane Packaging to further align itself as the key supplier of packaging to these digital purveyors.
The addition of Nottingham’s Greenwood Stock Boxes is noteworthy for two reasons: at £16.75m, not only is it Macfarlane’s largest acquisition to date (and one which the company asked investors to help fund), but it shifts the company into the online clothing sector.
This is an area where growth is a given. According to the Office for National Statistics, there was 15.1 per cent year-on-year growth in online sales in the UK in July, with “textile, clothing and footwear stores” increasing 11.9 per cent and department stores growing 8.4 per cent.
Looking at individual firms, the likes of Next, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer are all becoming more reliant on their website visitors as high street footfall flounders.
The fact is, whether it is to deliver a DVD, a shiny new smartphone or a pair of jeans or shoes, we are all becoming ever more reliant on cardboard containers landing on our doorsteps.
This has not been lost on Peter Atkinson, the chief executive of Macfarlane.
The company has a long history of acquisition in the fragmented packaging industry, stretching back to 1980 – seven years after its flotation. That has continued apace, and the company is currently examining a pipeline of around 25 targets.
Even with seven acquisitions in four years, there is a sense that Macfarlane’s shopping spree is far from over.
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