BY RICHARD LEE
Hearst Connecticut Media
A Stamford-based manufacturer of metal and plastic containers for the food and consumer goods industry has expanded its operations with the purchase of a California company.
Silgan Holdings has acquired Van Can, a San Diego-based manufacturer of metal containers with annual sales of $40 million. Terms of the deal, which includes two metal container factories, were not disclosed.
Silgan spokesman Robert Lewis declined to comment beyond the company”™s brief statement announcing the deal.
But Chip Dillon, an analyst with Vertical Research Partners, said Silgan has grown into a business with annual net sales of $3.7 billion thanks in large part to acquisitions. It operates 89 manufacturing facilities in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.
“They”™ve grown by buying can-production companies. If your are a seller, you have to talk with Silgan. They are the largest, followed by Ball Corp., and Crown Holding,” he said.
Van Can got its start in 1992, when Indonesia-based PT Mantrust separated the can division from Van Camp Seafood. The company manufactures containers to the tuna, poultry and chafing-dish industries.
Silgan”™s purchase comes as supermarket sales of canned foods are falling, according to Frank Dell, president of Dellmart, a Stamford-based consultant to the food and consumer products sectors.
Retail sales of canned fruit fell 3.2 percent last year from 2012, and canned vegetable sales fell 2.9 percent, he said. Canned soup sales were down 1.3Â percent.
The decline is continuing as Americans gravitate toward buying more fresh food, said Dell, a former employee of American Can.
The Can Manufacturers Institute, a national trade association of the metal can manufacturing industry and its suppliers in the United States, said the industry produces about 124 billion food, beverage and other metal cans annually and employs more than 28,000 people with plants in 33 states, Puerto Rico and American Samoa, generating about $17.8 billion in direct economic activity.
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News Times (Danbury). See stamfordadvocate.com for more from this reporter.
