IVE Group used its half year results presentation to reveal how it will build a $150m-a-year folding carton business, with major investments planned to drive growth at its JacPak acquisition, and at its Silverwater site.
IVE acquired JacPak on 31 October, paying $35m for the $45m a year business. IVE says in the two months it owned the business it performed in line with expectations. IVE says JackPak has the capability within its existing capacity to produce around $15m worth of extra revenue.
IVE is now looking to build on its packaging capability by investing in new finishing equipment for its Silverwater facility, leveraging its commercial print operation capability located there, and says this will provide the means to generate some $30m worth of packaging capacity in the short term, with further investment in packaging capability over the medium term adding the means to produce another $60m worth of packaging capacity, all adding up to a $150m a year folding carton business.
Revenue and EBITDA at IVE were both up in the half year to 31 December on the prior corresponding period, which itself was a record, reflecting a post-Covid boom, that has been maintained.
The first six months of the financial year saw the Ovato integration completed and the entry into folding carton through the acquisition of JacPak. IVE booked a loss of $5.6m on Warwick Farm.
The company says that normalised for the Warwick Farm loss its net profit after tax was $26.6m, up by 9.4 per cent on the same period last year.
Revenue was $506m, up by 0.6 per cent from $502.8m, its EBITDA of $65.8m was up by 1.3 per cent, while its NPAT of $22.7m was down from $24.3m.
IVE’s net debt increased to $165.4m from $124.2m, reflecting the funds necessary to acquire JacPak. Cash in hand at IVE is $41.7m.
Matt Aitken, CEO of IVE, said, “Given the more uncertain economic landscape, I am pleased with the first half result, which was up relative to a record prior period. We completed the Ovato integration six months ahead of the original timetable, and entered the Australian fibre-based packaging sector through the acquisition of JacPak.”
