Bevcraft Group merges with Norwegian firm
Mullingar's Bevcraft Group has merged with a Norwegian firm to form Europe's largest craft can specialist.
Bevcraft announced earlier today (Thursday December 29) the completion of a merger with Heidrun Tapperi AS (Heidrun) the leading craft can business in Norway.
In a statement released earlier, Bevcraft said that the merger with Heidrun “is a major milestone in the growth of the business and sees the enlarged group as the number one craft can business in Ireland, the UK and Norway with significant exports to more than a dozen other countries”.
The group now employees over 40 people across its bases in Sandefjord (Norway), Breda (Netherlands), Mullingar (Ireland), St Helens (UK), Peterborough (UK), Basingstoke (UK) & Leeds/Bradford (UK) and works with over 400+ beverage producers across Europe.
Commenting on the transaction Darren Fenton, Bevcraft Group COO, said: "Heidrun is one of the true pioneers of mobile canning in Europe. Like Bevcraft they have evolved into a professional full-service craft can specialist with mobile canning, can distribution and technical service offerings.
“We have long considered Heidrun one of the most technically adept and innovative operators as they have had to develop solutions particularly suitable for the Norwegian market which has a much more challenging geography, winter climate and labour market than our existing core markets.
"Unquestionably they will enhance the technical resources of the overall group and add to the overall knowledge base of the business.”
Commenting on the transaction Ciarán Gorman, Bevcraft Group CFO, said:
"The craft beverage market is continuing to evolve and has negotiated a relatively tough year as breweries and beverage producers have dealt with dramatic increases in energy and input costs coupled with shifts in consumer spending coming off the back of the Covid lockdown periods and now being impacted by inflation.
"We have always believed our role in the market is to equip our clients with the economies of scale, access to professional solutions and on-demand flexibility that they need to compete, grow and continue their focus on creating the depth and range of products the craft market is so brilliant at.
"This transaction continues to scale the overall business footprint to a point where more than a quarter of all the breweries in Europe are less than a three hour drive from a Bevcraft base."
Commenting on the transaction Eirik Solvåg, Heidrun Tapperi, CEO said:
"Bevcraft and Heidrun operate within the same client segments in the same industry, but although our head offices are only a couple of hours flight apart our core markets are in many ways: legislation, climate, distances etc very different.
“These differences are part of the strength of this merger, adding the strong Bevcraft operational organisation, digital can printing technology etc, we believe this merger will both strengthen our service level towards all our existing client base but also bring the group one step closer towards the vision we share to supply all corners of Europe with professional and flexible packaging.”
Heidrun was founded in Sandefjord, Norway by Eirik Solvåg, Ørjan Solvåg and Ole Solvåg in 2016, the same year as the Bevcraft Group was founded in Mullingar, Ireland by Ciarán Gorman and Darren Fenton.
The two businesses say that they have “enjoyed an excellent relationship from the very outset which has this week culminated in a full merger”. Eirik Solvåg and Ørjan Solvåg will both join the Board of Directors of the Bevcraft Group.
Bevcraft Group already works with clients across the Nordic market including in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland and says that the enlarged group will be much better positioned to service these clients and to continue to improve its offering across the region.