Veteran carton printer Anzpac Services has been bought by an unknown Hong Kong investor, which is taking control from owner of the past nine years New Toyo Group.

Steve Arduin, head of operations at Anzpac says he does not know the company, the only thing he does know is it is an investor out of Hong Kong. He says New Toyo were looking to sell Anzpac.

“New Toyo’s focus is on tobacco in Asia Pacific, it removed machinery from the Anzpac factory to assist the company in doing that over there. We have been put on the second fiddle trying to sell the business.”

Arduin says, “The deal will be completed on August 1, they are still finalising the sale.”

New Toyo bought Anzpac for $60m from British American Tobacco nine years ago.

[Related: Anzpac to move gravure overseas]

The new owners are likely to reduce staffing levels, Arduin says all staff will be given all entitlements for a redundancy package, with some staff given new employment with the new owner. He says, “Nothing will change with the premises and equipment.”

Last November Anzpac shut down its Australian gravure printing operations, moving the work to New Toyo locations in Vietnam and Malaysia, this move resulted in several redundancies of long-term employees.

Anzpac was founded in 1900 as Deaton & Spencer, it made its name in the latter half of the last century as a cigarette packaging printer, its owners sold to its major customer Rothmans in 1986, which became part of British American Tobacco in 1999. In 2004 it installed the world’s longest KBA 142 press, but the move coincided with the beginning of the downturn in domestic cigarette consumption. The legislation to plain packaging led to New Toyo moving the cigarette packaging offshore.

Anzpac is now a pure litho printer working for food and beverage companies. 

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