Owens-Illinois acquires Canadian glass container

As announced previously, the transaction was approved August 31 by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice as part of a restructuring plan by Consumers Packaging. The transaction also has received all necessary regulatory approvals. Joseph H. Lemieux, Owens-Illinois chairman and chief executive officer, said, "We are very pleased to have the opportunity to welcome these Canadian operations as the newest addition to our worldwide family of businesses. This acquisition will significantly increase our ability to serve glass container customers in North America. As we have done elsewhere around the world, we intend to apply our technology and operating know-how to achieve significant and ongoing improvements in the performance of these newly acquired operations."

Owens-Illinois plans to make investments in the Canadian manufacturing operations over the next several years to bring quality and productivity up to world class levels. O-I expects the acquisition to be accretive to earnings per share in the first full year after closing. The transaction was financed through bank borrowings. The Canadian business will operate as O-I Canada Corp. It is headquartered in Toronto and has annual sales of approximately US$300 million. It supplies packaging products for the Canadian juice, food, beer, wines and liquor industries from three plants in Ontario (Toronto, Brampton and Milton), and one each in Quebec (Montreal), New Brunswick (Scoudouc) and British Columbia (Lavington).