Arista employs 174 people in Stevenage, producing a wide range of mono and multi-layered extruded seamless plastic tubes for both international blue chip customers and local, regional players.
The company, which recorded 2003 sales of £12.2m, has comprehensive in-house facilities for full tube decoration, silk screen printing, foil blocking/ stamping and labelling, and can offer multi-layering in both the shoulder and sleeve of its tubes to provide optimum barrier properties for products sensitive to flavour or preservative.
Following the acquisition the present management team, headed by md Jeremy Paul, finance director Ben Stephens and sales and marketing director Evelyn Tweedlie, will continue to run the company's operations. The directors say they are confident they can "drive the business forward and give increased focus to meeting the needs of customers".
Jeremy Paul adds: "Arista Tubes is a business with great potential and committed people. I believe that with Essel Propack's backing and resources we will be able to further develop and grow this business so that we become a major world player."
Essel Propack, headquartered in Mumbai in India, operates 17 plants in 11 countries, supplying customers worldwide with laminate tubes for packaging toothpaste, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. With an annual production capacity of some 4.2bn tubes, it had consolidated sales of $132m in 2003.
Evelyn Tweedlie adds: "This deal can only be good news for Arista Tubes, giving us more muscle and the backing of a fast-growing group with considerable expertise in global expansion."
