Albéa Strengthens Its Hold on Metals; Sells off Compact Business

Keith Everson, SussexIM’s president and founder, buys compact business back from Albéa.

In order to increase its offerings of metal products worldwide, Albéa has announced that it has finalized an agreement with the Vacheron group, which has a subsidiary that specializes in the anodization of aluminum parts. Albéa says they will now be able to offer integrated metal-plastic solutions for all of their regions—Europe, Asia and North America—while maintaining project management for all plastic injection and assembly activities. In addition, Albéa announced that it has completed the transfer of its subsidiary Albéa Annecy SAS—which used to belong to the Personal Care division of Rexam—to Vacheron Industries. This will enable Albéa Annecy SAS to control all forming, anodizing, finishing and assembly operations associated with the design and development of metal and plastic packaging solutions for the cosmetics sector.

In a parallel move, the Albéa Group recently sold its North American cosmetic compact business back to its original owner, SussexIM, a provider of custom plastic, injection-molding solutions for multinational brand owners. The purchase includes SussexIM’s reacquisition of its Innovation Center. Formed in 1977 as Sussex Plastics, the company was sold to Rexam in 1999. In 2010, London-based Rexam PLC’s plastic packaging group sold half of the business to Keith Everson (SussexIM president and founder), Dave Guagliardo and Phil Salzman in a management buyout. Rexam retained ownership of the cosmetics business but contracted SussexIM to continue manufacturing the products, while Rexam handled sales and marketing. Their five-year supply agreement was terminated last year when Rexam sold the cosmetic product unit to Albéa Group.