Amfora Packaging came on to the scene in June 2015 when ACON Investments acquired Columbian plastic package maker Intecplast and Pieriplast. Intecplast made rigid plastic containers for personal care and cosmetics while Pieriplast specialized in “luxury high-end, customized packaging solutions for the direct sales cosmetics industry in the Andean Region,” according to a press release about the 2015 deal.
As Amfora, the company employed some 800 people, making packing in both Lima, Peru, and Bogota, Colombia.
At the time Amfora was formed, Jose Miguel Knoell, managing partner of ACON, remarked, “The integration of Intecplast and Pieriplast into Amfora forms the leading manufacturer of plastic packaging for cosmetics and personal care products in the Andean region. The Company will be well-positioned to enter new export markets and at the same time capitalize on a fragmented industry in the region with few competitors able to develop and produce quality products acceptable to multinational customers.”
Bigger
TricorBraun is not new to the region. The company has been doing business in South America as well as in Mexico for 8 years; but TricorBraun executives see the 50 / 50 joint venture with Amfora as a way to speed the company’s progress.
“We could have continued developing these markets on our own,” Carlos Acedo, general manager of Latin America for TricorBraun, says in a media release about the joint venture, “but it would have taken substantially more time. We have aggressive growth plans and our relationship with Amfora instantly provides us with a more fully functioning, broad-based business model,” he adds.
The TricorBraun South America SAS venture will do business in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Venezuela, according to Acedo.
Better
The new company held an open house event in Bogotá last week, welcoming current and prospective customers and vendors as well as local authorities.
“We are very excited about the association of Amfora Packaging with TricorBraun, which enables us to bring to South America one of the world’s leading packaging companies,” says Jose Alejandro Arango, newly appointed general manager of the venture. “TricorBraun's marketing, design and logistics capabilities are available on five continents. Coupled with an impressive network of global suppliers, our combined offering is one of the industry’s most complete alternatives for plastic, glass and dispensing systems.”