L Catterton, one of the largest and most global consumer-focused private equity firms in the world, and Ambienta, a European private equity fund focused on sustainability, recently announced they had joined forces to acquire Pibiplast, a leading player in the design and manufacturing of beauty and personal care plastic packaging solutions, with headquarters in Correggio, Italy.The Bosi family, founder and current owners of the company, will retain a minority stake.

Today, Pibiplast, founded in 1954, operates four plants based in Northern Italy, serving more than 500 customers across 35 countries. It offers a wide range of products and customized solutions to the cosmetics industry, from the most recognized global brands to emerging independent brands. According to a news release, "The business is well-positioned to continue its attractive historical growth having reached over €60 million of revenues in the past year."

The Italian firm, in recent years, mostly invested in its various production plants in Italy. Among the latest major investments: the installation of a complete varnishing and metallization line, in addition to the construction of the new Correggio plant, the extensions of the Milan factory and investments made in the Florence factory. The main market today for the Italian firm, is makeup, which represents 55% of sales, followed by skincare (30%) and tubes whose year-on-year progression, reached 25% last year. "And we plan to invest next year in the production of five-layer coextruded tubes," says Giorgio Bosi, CEO of Pibiplast.

Environment Comes First
According to the release, "While environmentally friendly and natural and organic products are emerging in response to consumer demand, the cosmetics industry has been a late adopter of eco-friendly solutions in terms of packaging. Pibiplast was a pioneer during the first wave of companies transitioning away from highly polluting materials in the 1990s, substituting non-recyclable plastics with recyclable plastics with a better environmental footprint. The company also took steps to adopt more sustainable materials such as bioplastics and recycled plastics. As a result of its leadership position, Pibiplast has a strong edge compared to the market norm in terms of adoption of highly recyclable products (63% by Pibiplast vs. 28% by the market)."

Andrea Ottaviano, managing partner of L Catterton Europe, says: "Sustainability has increasingly become a driver for change in the cosmetics industry and we were drawn to Pibiplast as a leader in eco-friendly packaging solutions. We look forward to working with Ambienta to support the company's growth through strong investments in R&D and Capex. We also believe the highly fragmented market offers meaningful opportunities to look for add-on investments to broaden Pibiplast's product offering and strengthen its international presence."

Mauro Roversi, chief investment officer at Ambienta, commented: "This is a tremendous opportunity for Ambienta to help Pibiplast capture the growing demand for more sustainable packaging and the exceptional prospects offered by the beauty and personal care sector. Our objective is to position Pibiplast as the undisputed leader in sustainable cosmetic packaging, and we are confident that we can achieve our goals by working together with L Catterton and Pibiplast's strong management team."

About L Catterton and Ambienta
With over $15 billion of equity capital across six fund strategies in 17 offices globally, L Catterton is the largest and most global consumer-focused private equity firm in the world. L Catterton was formed through the partnership of Catterton, LVMH and Groupe Arnault. Ambienta is a European Private Equity fund based in Milan, Düsseldorf and London, focused on industrial growth investing in companies driven by environmental trends.
 —From Beauty Packaging's European correspondent, Jean-Yves Bourgeois