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West Belfast firm Delta bought by Huhtamaki in £80m deal

Andor's factory in west Belfast
Andor's factory in west Belfast Andor's factory in west Belfast

WEST Belfast's two business jewels have now both been sold for more than a quarter of a billion pounds.

Delta Print & Packaging, founded by Terry Cross in 1981, was acquired by Finnish rival Huhtamaki for £80 million, it was revealed yesterday.

It followed the sale of specialist camera maker Andor Technology to Oxford Instruments in 2013 for £178m.

The firms were two of the last major indigenous manufacturers in west Belfast.

Huhtamaki, a specialist in fibre-based packaging, will add the almost 300 Delta workers to its already 200-strong workforce at two plants in the north.

Delta makes cartons for a string of major global brands including McDonald's, Kellogg's KFC, Tesco and Sainsbury's.

Mr Cross will remains as senior adviser, helping Huhtamaki to build its folding carton packaging business.

Huhtamaki said it would retain the current Delta management.

Its managing director in Western Europe and UK Rosemary Mason said Delta offered it a chance to expand its offering.

“To date, our product offering has focused on food-to-go packaging such as cups, lids, plates, bowls and cutlery for some of the leading food and food service brands in the world," she said.

"The acquisition of Delta, which manufactures board products complementary to our own such as burger clam boxes, fry cartons and flat cartons for many different retail products, will allow Huhtamaki to enter the fast-growing folding carton business in Europe and strengthen our global customer partnerships.”

Mr Cross said that after "35 years on from our first transaction, now is the time for the company to take the next step in what has been, and what will continue to be, a very exciting journey for the company, our employees and our customers".