A plastics and pulp packaging manufacturer has been bought for an undisclosed sum by a company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Plastique, based in Tunbridge Wells, will become a part of Illinois-based TEQ, a subsidiary of listed US firm ESCO Technologies Inc.

The company, which employs 170 people, attracted the deal after becoming a market leader in packaging for pharmaceutical, personal care, and various other markets.

With annual sales of more than £20 million, it will give its new owners access to its customers in Europe and North America.

Plastique, which manufactures in Nottingham and Poznan, Poland, has grown since it attracted a £5 million investment from Business Growth Fund (BGF), a £2.5bn private equity pot backed by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered.

The deal means BGF has exited the business.

"BGF’s capital has enabled us to further scale our operations and increase the breadth of packaging solutions we can offer our clients..." - John Lowe, Plastique

Plastique managing director John Lowe said: “This is an exciting opportunity to continue the growth of our business. BGF’s capital has enabled us to further scale our operations and increase the breadth of packaging solutions we can offer our clients.

“Combining with TEQ provides the group with significant opportunities to accelerate the growth of our existing portfolio of businesses and allows us to expand into a broader platform of new product development areas.

“The similarities within the two operations are extensive and having the chance to jointly develop new market opportunities across the globe is extremely exciting.”

Rory Pope, an investor at BGF who will now step down from Plastique’s board, said: “Plastique has built an excellent reputation and business of scale in the thermoformed packaging market.

“John and the wider team have created an innovative pulp packaging offering and we are delighted to have been a part of supporting that growth.”

TEQ president Randy Loga said: “Adding Plastique’s capabilities to our product portfolio creates an exciting and meaningful growth opportunity for TEQ by combining our unique technologies, product offerings, and wide-spread geographies.

“Additionally, having both a North American and European presence is a prerequisite to being a top-tier supplier to the larger global medical device and pharma customers, and we are confident we can exploit these new opportunities.”