News

Unions have called on global aluminium giant Rio Tinto Alcan to sell its packaging arm as a single, standalone business rather than divide it up to attract more buyers.

Peter Ellis, Unite national officer for the graphical, paper and media sector, said the business was "big and successful enough to be sold as a going concern".

Private equity groups have been tipped as likely bidders if the group is sold as a whole.

The division is to be sold following Alcan's £19bn ($38bn) takeover by mining group Rio Tinto.

Ellis said Alcan's packaging arm employed more than 600 UK staff across two plants. The firm's facility in Salterbeck, Cumbria, specialises in flexible packaging and has a 500-strong workforce, while its plant in Warmley, Bristol, manufactures cigarette cartons and has 120 staff.

Ellis pointed out that the packaging business had a number of blue-chip clients on its books, including PepsiCo, Nestlé and Walkers.

And he said the decision to offload the packaging arm had been expected because Rio Tinto does not own any packaging operations.