Cork packaging group Zeus acquires two businesses and sees path to €1bn in annual revenues
Cork-based packaging group
Zeus
has completed bolt-on acquisitions in England and Spain that will add €20 million to its annual revenues, which will be in excess of €500 million this year.
The Irish company has closed the acquisition of Empire Tapes, a Rotherham-based manufacturer of specialist adhesive tapes, and Rio Tinto Plásticos, a Spanish distributor and manufacturer of sustainable packaging products.
Empire Tapes serves industrial clients across the UK and globally while Rio Tinto is known for its sustainable, single-use packaging solutions for the vending, hospitality and catering sectors.
Zeus's founder and owner Brian O'Sullivan said the businesses were 'both highly respected operators' in their fields and would bring new capabilities to the Irish group.
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'The company we have acquired in the UK is a speciality tape manufacturer. It can produce tapes that can go down to minus 40 degrees, for example, or plus 120 degrees for the automotive industry or steel. It's the next level of vertical integration to give us wider grasp within the transit packaging sphere,' Mr O'Sullivan told The Irish Times while visiting Tokyo last week as part of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year CEO retreat.
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'The Japanese want to see you have the attention to detail, customer service and quality they expect. You have to deliver'
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'We already have a sizeable business in Spain but the market there is very fractured with packaging. We're one of the top two or three businesses in Spain. This is in addition to that, it's a partner of ours and we've known the owners for many years and have worked very closely with them. It gives us more market penetration into the vending packaging area.'
Mr O'Sullivan said Spain was a market 'that we will look to double up in over the next two to three years'.
Zeus is one of the largest privately-owned packaging companies in Europe with a footprint across 40 countries, employing 1,500 staff directly. The acquisitions will help the company hit revenues of about €550 million for 2025, with significant growth forecast for 2026, according to Mr O'Sullivan.
'What we see in our pipeline between organic and acquisitions, we'd be looking to reach to between €650 million and €700 million of revenue,' he said, adding that it could breach the €1 billion mark within the next three to five years subject to market conditions.
'We can grow by bolt-on acquisitions and we can grow to that figure of €1 billion, that's within our grasp.'
Mr O'Sullivan owns 100 per cent of the business and says he has no current plans to sell an equity stake in the company or to IPO it on the stock market with a view to taking some money off the table.
'I love what I'm doing, I have a passion for the business, and I'd like to drive it on for the next period.'
Mr O'Sullivan was
named the EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2021
. At that time, the company employed about 670 staff and had annual revenues of €300 million.
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