Britton Group (Holdings), which reckons to be the UK's second largest supplier of flexible plastics packaging and one of the top 10 producers in Europe, has been taken over in a £46 million management buy-out. The MBO was led by Mike Clark, who joined Brittons from Tyco Plastics as chief executive in November last year on the retirement of Dick Searle.
The group includes Britton Taco in Winsford, Cheshire; Britton Merlin in Louth, Lincolnshire; and Britton Decoflex in Hartlepool, and has annual sales of around £90 million. It produces some 100,000 tonnes of packaging film annually, with around 850 employees. The Britton Group was originally set up by two entrepreneurs as a vehicle to acquire a range of packaging companies engaged in film extrusion and corrugated box manufacture.
During the 1990s the business grew through acquisition, and was itself acquired in 1998 by US-based ACX Technologies.
The film side of the business then underwent a sale to management and shortly afterwards Britton acquired Merlin Flexible Packaging.