Zeus buys Austrian firm to complete €40m plan
IRISH-owned Zeus Packaging has purchased Austrian-based food packaging business, Petruzalek.
The company was acquired from Italian investment holding company Italmobiliare. This completes a three-year €40m acquisition strategy for Zeus.
Last year, Petruzalek had revenues of approximately €58m and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of €2.5m.
The acquisition expands and strengthens Zeus’s geographic presence in 12 additional countries across Europe.
Established by Brian O’Sullivan in 1998, this latest acquisition by Zeus brings the number employed by the company to 670 people across 26 countries from 450 people across 14 countries.
Zeus CEO Keith Ockenden said the addition of Petruzalek “significantly extends our reach into new markets, brings complementary diversification to our product range and further enhances our client network”.
Speaking to the Irish Independent Mr Ockenden said the Covid-19 pandemic had been “a challenge” for the company.
“The spread of the business has given it opportunities to be agile. We will start to see European [expansion] come through over the next three to five years, definitely in the food service sector, retail, industrial packaging in particular,” he said.
Mr Ockenden warned that the fall-off in airline travel and the affect of the pandemic on the hospitality sector has “negatively impacted the company”.
“But on industrial side, home deliveries, retail, the food takeaway sector [have benefitted], what we have lost in some
areas we have seen grow in other areas.”
For Zeus, the next one to two years is about bedding down and consolidating acquisitions.
“If any opportunity comes up, we will always assess and evaluate,” he said.
Zeus’ turnover has grown substantially over the past three years, reaching €208m in 2020.
It is expected to reach €280m for 2021.
“In 2020, despite the pandemic, Zeus reached a milestone with revenues exceeding €200m,” said Zeus founder Brian O’Sullivan.
“With today’s announcement, Zeus remains on track to become the largest independent packaging distribution business in Europe. The acquisition of Petruzalek not only further builds on our scale, but strengthens our operating platform across Europe.”
In 2019, Zeus began a €40m investment program, buying Dublin-based Essential Supplies
followed by manufacturer, Aldar Tissues.
Since then, the company’s investments included the 220-year-old Liverpool-based distribution business Smith & Bateson, Lincolnshire-based food packaging business Van Der Windt and Saffron Waldon-based Vaiopak Group.
In January 2020, Zeus announced completion of the acquisition of Plasti-Cart, which is operating across the Canary Islands.
Among the people and firms providing advice to Zeus on the purchase of Petruzalek were Sean O’Keefe, Ulster Bank; Eversheds Sutherland; Deloitte Ireland; bpv Hügel; McMahon O’Brien Tynan; Gattai, Minoli, Agostinelli & Partners, Milan and EY, Vienna and Milan.
THOUSANDS of jobs dependent on aviation here could be lost permanently unless the Government acts to support the sector through a second summer of inactivity caused by Covid-related travel restrictions, according to trade union Fórsa.
And it told an Oireachtas transport committee hearing that the sector’s workers are under severe financial strain with mortgage and other debts that are piling up and destined to be a burden for years.
The Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA) told the committee yesterday that airlines need direct State aid to survive after depleting cash reserves last year.
In a bleak assessment of the sector as it nears the anniversary of the country’s first lockdown, Fórsa official Ashley Connolly told committee members that with no early end to flight restrictions in sight, thousands of aviation jobs remain at risk unless the Government acts.
“While the industry and its staff have benefitted from
State wage supports, Ireland continues to lack a European-style joined-up Government approach to underpin jobs in the sector, protect aviation infrastructure, and ensure the survival of a viable post-pandemic industry,” she said.
“This runs the risk that Irish aviation will be left behin d when the rest of the world moves on, with potentially devastating implications for the national economy and employment in aviation and the sectors an d communities that depend on it.”
She told the committee that it’s almost certain that aviation will be among the last industries to emerge from the crisis.
Ms Connolly said Fórsa wants the Central Bank to adopt guidelines from the European Banking Authority for the extension of mortgage payment breaks in 2021.
“The European guidelines do not currently apply in Ireland, where the application process is slow and onerous,” she told the committee.
“After 11 months of income reductions, and no early sight of recovery, this is placing avoidable strain on workers.”
IALPA president Evan Cullen told the committee that more airlines are facing collapse as the Covid crisis continues.
“The loss of a second consecutive summer season – coming after an entire year of practically zero revenue – will prove fatal for airlines that have already decimated their cash reserves,” he told the committee.
He said that if international travel has to be suppressed into the future, then “significant financial support” for Irish airlines is required.
‘More airlines are facing collapse’