Golden West Packaging Group, a West Coast specialty packaging business, announced it has acquired Berry Pack and Progressive Packaging Group, two independent, California based fresh produce packaging and distribution providers with operations in California, Arizona and northern Mexico.
Berry Pack, based in Salinas, California, provides branded, hand-fold, custom-design, field-ready packaging systems including primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging. The business converts 350-million-square-feet of corrugated sheets annually through WestCorr, its facility in Oxnard, California. In addition, Berry Pack operates four assembly and distribution operations, with two located in Oxnard and one each in Santa Maria, California, and Watsonville, California. Distribution operations include planning, warehousing, inventory management, logistics and execution.
Progressive Packaging Group, also based in Salinas, provides corrugated packaging, flexible packaging, ties and bands. In addition, the business operates four assembly and distribution operations located in Salinas, Oxnard, Santa Maria, California, and Yuma, Arizona. Services include item forecast and usage management, research and development, project management, direct shipment tracking, real-time inventory management, customized reporting, on-time delivery, short haul deliveries, end-of-season transfers, and storage.
Commenting on the acquisition, Golden West President Brad Jordan said, “Golden West focuses on acquiring well-established packaging businesses and further developing them into high-performing partners to their customers. Berry Pack and Progressive Packaging Group are excellent examples of this strategy.”
Berry Pack and Progressive Packaging Group founder Barry Johnston said, “This is an exciting development for our customers and employees. Joining Golden West will enable Berry Pack and Progressive Packaging Group to invest in, enhance, and accelerate our customer experience.”
Progressive Packaging Group co-founder Eli Riddle added, “Our customers have come to expect that we listen, understand, and respond to their unique needs. Golden West understands this and has their own track record of investing in and further developing great customer service systems and teams. This is a very positive development for our customers.”
This is Golden West’s fourth acquisition, following its February 2017 acquisition of five northern California-based packaging providers (Capital Corrugated, Heritage Solutions, Packaging Innovators, Package One, and Cal Sheets), its February 2018 acquisition of southern California based Fleetwood-Fibre Packaging & Graphics, and its March 2019 acquisition of Washington State-based Allpak Container.
Golden West was founded in 2017 by Lindsay Goldberg in partnership with Steven Klinger, Steve Strickland, and Craig Hunt, who have worked together for more than three decades building high-performance packaging businesses. The executives are also involved with Lindsay Goldberg’s investments in Crown Paper Group and specialty papers manufacturer Pixelle Specialty Solutions, and were previously senior executives with Smurfit Stone Container, Georgia-Pacific, and Unisource.
