Amerplast - Chiltern Capital

The Business

Trueman Group is a pan-European manufacturer of recycled and recyclable flexible packaging products which are supplied into the food manufacturing, bakery, hygiene and pet food sectors. The Group focuses on service and technically led, bespoke production. The Group currently comprises three businesses, Hanmere Polythene, Plasmech Packaging (both UK) and Amerplast (Finland/Poland), and is led by a central senior management team.

The Deal

Chiltern initially backed an experienced chairman, David Lennon, and the incumbent Managing Director, Glen Morris, to acquire Hanmere from a family trust. Following the addition of industry veteran Jim Farrell as CFO/COO, Chiltern supported the business in acquiring both Plasmech Packaging in September 2020 and Amerplast in March 2021 to create a pan-European group. The acquisition of Amerplast also further strengthened the management team with the introduction of Amerplast CEO, Mark Rooney, as Trueman Group CEO.

The Plan

Trueman Group is a stable, cash generative, specialist provider of polythene packaging products, supplying customers across Europe that largely operate in non-cyclical and food related markets. Chiltern will leverage its size to generate costs savings across its supplier base, combine its product portfolio and the capabilities of its sales teams to ensure cross selling opportunities are realised, while integrating leadership and production systems to reinforce and build upon its respective positions in its core markets.

In addition, Chiltern and the senior management team will actively target selective acquisitions to add further scale, customer relationships, products and capabilities to the Group.

The Team

Alex Sheffield

Partner

David Butler

Partner

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Alex Sheffield

Alex co-founded Chiltern Capital. He enjoys working with teams to drive growth and innovation. He has led and sat on the boards of a number of our investments, including Steer Automotive. Alex is a member of the investment committee.

He has previously been on the other side of the table as COO and CFO of a PE-backed business, and also as CFO of a listed buy and build group, prior to leading its successful sale to a strategic acquirer. Alex qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC.

He has a passion for food (cooking and eating), and a love of the outdoors.

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David Butler

David was previously an Associate Director at Downing LLP where he focused on early-stage growth capital investing across a range of sectors.

Prior to Downing, David was a Manager in the Corporate Finance team at PwC in London having spent three years within the PwC Assurance practice, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

At Chiltern, David leads transactions across multiple sectors, with particular experience in industrial products and services.

Since joining Chiltern, David has been involved in the acquisition and subsequent sale of Doby Verrolec, add-ons of Plasmech and Amerplast to Hanmere to form the Trueman Group, add-on of TTG to Gradwell, and the acquisitions of Inciner8, Emtez and Strata Products.

Outside of work, David enjoys spending time with his young family, supporting his old rugby club, and is a keen golfer.