By Kate Tilley
CORRESPONDENT
Published: August 11, 2014 12:05 pm ET
Updated: August 11, 2014 12:09 pm ET
Image By: Sulo (NZ) Ltd.
Sulo MGB is the leading molder of two-wheel bins in Australia and New Zealand.
Pact Group Holdings Ltd. is buying the Australian and New Zealand operations of Sulo MGB (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., including its subsidiary Sulo (NZ) Ltd.
Melbourne-based Pact said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange it will pay up to A$34.8 million (US$32.2 million), subject to Sulo meeting post-purchase financial targets. Pact is funding the deal through existing debt facilities.
Sulo is Australia and New Zealand’s leading manufacturer of plastic waste and recycling bins — known in Australia as wheelie bins. It produces about 2 million two-wheel mobile garbage bins (MGB) annually for local governments and waste collection companies. Its sales in the year ended June 30 was about A$48 million (US$44.4 million).
Sulo was founded in Germany in 1890 and remained family owned until 2004 when the company was sold to a consortium of investors. The Australian subsidiary was established in 1983. Initially it imported MGBs from Germany before it began manufacturing in Australia.
Sulo has about 90 employees in its Australian and New Zealand operations. Sulo MGB (Aust.) operates a highly automated, large-tonnage injection molding plant at Somersby, 49 miles north of Sydney.
In July 2006 Sulo MGB incorporated a small family owned rotational molding company, Rabbit Plastics. In 2008 it established a rotational molding facility at West Gosford, near the Somersby plant. The West Gosford facility manufactures industrial bin lids, bin enclosures and larger four-wheel bins.
Pact Group CEO Brian Cridland said the Sulo acquisition will complement Pact’s growing sustainability, material-handling and infrastructure division.
Pact Group was established by Chairman Raphael Geminder in June 2002 and has grown significantly through a strategy of buying long-standing, well-established packaging businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. It listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in December 2013, but Geminder’s private company, Geminder Holdings, retains a 40 percent shareholding in Pact. | 
