Graham Packaging to buy Techne from liquidation

Techne stopped taking orders for new machines around March 2010 and filed for protection from creditors in mid-October. The company was under liquidation proceedings with the Court of Bologna, Italy.

Techne makes extrusion blow moulding machines and has an installed customer base of more than 1,000 machines with more than 200 customers in more than 70 countries. The machines make bottles for dairy, household, industrial, personal care, pharmaceutical, food, and beverage markets.

York-based Graham announced on April 20 that it intends to acquire intellectual property, inventory, fixed assets, customer relationships, and trade agreements. Graham intends to continue to operate Techne's manufacturing site in Bologna.

Graham's plan to buy Techne's assets is subject to the approval by Techne's creditors and the court.

"Techne's assets significantly expand our proprietary machine technology and allow us to continue to drive innovation and cost effectiveness with our customers," said Mark Burgess, CEO of Graham. "Their installed base of over 1,000 machines gives us additional opportunities to expand our activity in international markets and other market adjacencies."

Last week Silgan Holdings announced that it plans to buy Graham Packaging for $4.1bn, including debt. That deal is expected to close in the third quarter, and it will create the largest blow moulder in North America.

[ Back ]