With Private Equity, Berry Plastics Sees Growth and Innovation
Rich: “We have great people here at Berry Plastics, but we’re matched with that expertise with our equity owners.”
Today the Private Equity Growth Capital Council released a new video case study as part of its ongoing Private Equity at Work campaign. The new video features Evansville, Indiana-based Berry Plastics (NYSE: BERY), a leading provider of value-added plastic consumer packaging and engineered materials. With operational expertise and guidance from Apollo Global Management, LLC, Berry Plastics has made a series of strategic acquisitions since 2006 that have helped the company grow and innovate at every turn.
“When you have excited customers, you’ve got innovation, you’ve got new products. That leads to the creation of jobs, and that cycle turns over and over again,” said Berry Plastics CEO Jonathan Rich. “The people that we’ve had investing with us in private equity are creating that future.”
In September 2006, Apollo and Private Equity firm Graham Partners acquired Berry Plastics. For fiscal year 2012, Berry Plastics reported net sales of $4.8 billion, as compared to net sales of $1.2 billion in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005. During this same time period, the company more than doubled its employee headcount. Today, the company employs more than 16,000 people at 85 facilities, and is currently expanding its Evansville production facility, as well as building a new factory facility in Madisonville, Kentucky. Together, these will create more than 500 new jobs.
“Berry Plastics is a true success story of how private equity helps companies flourish every day,” said Steve Judge, PEGCC president and CEO. “When private equity is able to identify a company poised for growth, and provide the strategic vision and operational tools needed to achieve that growth, we see extremely successful outcomes.”
“We have great people here at Berry Plastics, but we’re matched with that expertise with our equity owners,” said Rich. “They provided the leadership, the guidance. They were involved with the strategic investments…They’ve been partners with us every step of the way.”
