GHO Capital Partners announces investment in packaging firm Sanner

Global Healthcare Opportunities, or GHO Capital Partners, the European investor in global healthcare, has invested in Sanner Group, a supplier of active packaging solutions and components for the pharmaceutical, diagnostic, nutraceutical and medtech industries.

Headquartered in Germany and leveraging its manufacturing facilities across France, Hungary and China, Sanner has developed from a specialist for desiccant closures and effervescent tablet packaging into a sought-after provider of customised solutions in the areas of medical & diagnostics, consumer healthcare and pharma. Sanner produces more than 4 billion component parts each year and has over 600 employees.

Sanner has seen its sales in 2020 increasing by more than 15% from 2019. The business is set to continue to deliver significant growth, benefitting from an attractive product portfolio and long-standing relationships with its diversified, blue chip customer base.GHO will support Sanner in accelerating growth plans through the expansion of manufacturing sites in Germany and China, and developing capabilities to facilitate expansion in U.S. markets.

Leveraging Sanner’s R&D and manufacturing capabilities, GHO will support management to accelerate product expansion initiatives, sales and investment in business development to deliver margin improvements and increase capacity to drive growth. 

Sanner is committed to sustainability and has ambitious targets to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions while using materials more efficiently. The business has successfully reduced CO2 emissions by more than 40% at its Bensheim site, measured in terms of production volume since 2012. The business also plans to expand its use of bio-based plastics across its product portfolio, which contribute to climate protection by reducing CO2 emissions.

The Partners at GHO capital, said: “Backed by more than 120 years of industry experience, Sanner is a recognised market leader with a standout reputation for innovation, quality and reliability. With our support, management are well placed to realise the shared ambition to accelerate Sanner’s growth, investing in both existing facilities and operations as well as leveraging our US expertise to identify growth opportunities.”

Jürgen Sanner, shareholder of Sanner GmbH, added: “We have been observing increasing consolidation in the market for some time now. As a medium-sized company, we must react if we want to remain successful in the long term. With GHO, we have found a strong partner that specialises in the healthcare and medtech sectors and offers us further opportunities for successful growth."