For Flexibles, Stable Doesn't Mean Stagnant

No rest for execs

Industry activity away from the production floor in 1998 could be seen as a further call for converters to stay awake at the wheel.

The year's pace of flexible packaging industry mergers and acquisitions was nearly as brisk as in 1997, with 21 transactions confirmed through the first nine months of '98 and a year-end total expected to come close to '97's 33 transactions. Biggers says the repeated joinings of major corporations—Fort Howard and James River, Cryovac and Sealed Air, Jefferson Smurfit and Stone Container, and Clorox and First Brands—will go down as '98's signature M&A pattern.