LCI Packaging acquisition: CV Pack scales up custom cardboard packaging

CV Pack, the designer-manufacturer of custom packaging

Founded in 2002 in Saint-Chamond, in the Loire department, by Charles Vallas, CV Pack is a French designer and manufacturer of custom packaging and printed communication materials — cardboard boxes and cartons, gift boxes, display stands, point-of-sale (POS) displays, inserts and bespoke solutions. The unlisted family business — Mathieu Vallas is its technical director — controls every stage of the production chain, from printing to folding, die-cutting, gluing and lamination, and serves seven sectors, from food to cosmetics, luxury, medical, industry, sport and leisure, from prototype short runs to industrial volumes. Its published strategy is one of continuous industrial investment — a die-cutting machine dedicated to prototyping, then new printing equipment — in support of a stated ambition: to strengthen its position as France's benchmark designer-manufacturer of custom packaging, with responsible solutions made in France.

LCI Packaging, custom industrial cartonnage

Based in Ludres, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, LCI Packaging — Le Cartonnage Industriel — is a French manufacturer specialising in the design and production of custom cardboard packaging for businesses: boxes, cartons, gift boxes, display stands, wallets, sleeves and carry cases, serving many markets, from food and drink to cosmetics, medical, communication and leisure. What sets it apart is the technical depth of its know-how — cartonnage, die-cutting, folding and gluing, right through to micro-flute and nano-flute solutions — combined with a dedicated technical design office that optimises packaging around protection, handling, packing and transport constraints. Its integration is an industrial consolidation: the production equipment has moved to a second group site, and continuity of service has been publicly confirmed to customers — the offer, product ranges and support continue under the new banner.

Why the LCI Packaging acquisition, and why this target

For CV Pack, the aim was to change scale without changing its nature: to remain the custom specialist — prototype short runs, premium finishing, proximity — while gaining the capacity to serve long runs and the full spectrum of needs. ‘A growth strategy built on complementary know-how’, the acquirer's press release states: where the Loire-based firm excels in printing and finishing, the Lorraine company brings cartonnage, die-cutting, folding, gluing and fine flutes — two industrial toolkits that fit together machine by machine, without overlap. The deal broadens the group's offer at a stroke — from boxes and cartons to gift boxes, display stands, POS and technical inserts — as well as its production base: the target's equipment joins a second production site, increasing industrial capacity for projects of every size.

On the target side, LCI Packaging offered exactly the complementarity the thesis required: long-standing cartonnage know-how — as its name, Le Cartonnage Industriel, makes clear — with no overlap with the acquirer's printing activities; rare technical skills such as micro-flute and nano-flute; a technical design office that designs packaging around real-world constraints — protection, handling, packing, transport; a multi-sector business clientele that proves the offer is repeatable; and transferable equipment whose consolidation on a second site multiplies the capacity of the combined group. For a family-owned custom packaging house, this is the acquisition that industrialises without standardising: the public promise made to the target's customers — support continues, ranges remain — speaks to the nature of the integration.

French cardboard packaging consolidates through complementarity

This deal illustrates the reshaping of French cardboard converting: a fabric of family-owned SMEs and regional workshops, each master of one toolkit — printing here, cartonnage there, fine flutes elsewhere — facing buyers who are rationalising their purchasing and expect full-service partners, from design to long runs. Demand pulls in the same direction: the replacement of plastic by cardboard, driven by regulation and brand commitments, widens the scope of fibre-based packaging — and rewards manufacturers able to combine customisation, environmental responsibility and proudly French production. In this landscape, consolidation is not about size for its own sake: it assembles complementary toolkits, machine by machine, to build complete offers.

The deal is doubly domestic in scope: a consolidation between the Loire and Lorraine — the Loire-based company founded in 2002 bringing in the Ludres carton maker — and an openly industrial consolidation, with the target's equipment joining a second group production site to increase its capacity. Continuity is public and verifiable: the target's customers are welcomed under the new banner with the stated promise that services, ranges and support continue — and the combined group claims French manufacturing, environmentally responsible materials and a stated ambition: to be France's benchmark designer-manufacturer of custom packaging, from short to long runs.

Collaboration Capital's added value on this buy-side mandate

On this deal, Collaboration Capital acted as buy-side adviser. Acquiring a complementary converter plays out in four stages — and in the cardboard trades, where value lies in the machines and the hands that run them, each stage has its own technical demands.