Air Liquide announces the acquisition by its subsidiary Schülke, a specialist in hygiene and hospital disinfection, of Vic Pharma, a company operating in this sector in Brazil.
Founded in 1990, Vic Pharma is the second largest independent player in the Brazilian hygiene market and counts more than 100 employees. It offers a broad range of hygiene products for disinfecting surfaces, instruments and medical devices, as well as antiseptic solutions for pre- or post-operative care. Present mainly in the hospital and medical settings, the company generated revenue of around € 8 million in 2015. It distributes its product range to hospitals through a wide distribution network that covers the entire country.
The Group will call on the existing teams to pursue the deployment and distribution of Vic Pharma product lines, to which the Schülke hygiene product lines will gradually be added.
Thanks to this acquisition, made via a majority equity stake (75%), Air Liquide reinforces its position in the South American Healthcare market.
Pascal Vinet, Vice-President Global Healthcare Operations and member of Air Liquide group’s Executive Committee, commented: “With this acquisition Air Liquide Healthcare pursues the development of its Hygiene activity, extending its geographic reach to South America. The Group thus strengthens its Healthcare business in this region.”
Source: Air Liquide
The US State of New York is introducing two new bills to combat over-packaging, poor recycling rates and litter issues, including an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program requiring companies such as McDonald’s and Amazon to pay for the cost of packaging disposal and recycling.
The new organization’s mission is to redesign the critical steps of the plastics sorting and recycling system for post-consumer lightweight packaging (LWP) to speed up circularity, born from a need to meet the rising market demand for high-quality recyclates for use in high-end plastic applications.
Starbucks and Hubbub have launched a £1 million (US$1.22 million) “Bring It Back Fund” to increase the uptake of reusable packaging in the F&B industry. The funding will go toward innovative ideas that make it easier for customers to use alternatives to single-use packaging by supporting pilot projects that help shift consumption habits.
