ISRAEL – StePac, an Israeli packaging company packaging company has been acquired by Nili Capital Partners, a private equity company also based in Israel.

StePac offers a range of packaging formats for fresh produce, with modified atmosphere properties for extending the shelf life of different items.

The company’s portfolio encompasses options to support different stages of the supply chain, including long-haul shipments and retail shelf storage.

Under its new ownership, StePac will form the nucleus of Nili’s modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) platform, MAPfresh Holdings.

MAP process involves packaging a product in an atmosphere dissimilar from that of air, helping delay the process of product degradation, typically by decreasing the oxygen content available to the product during its shelf life.

“This acquisition marks a major step towards StePac’s goal of becoming the leading global force in MAP packaging solutions for fresh produce,” said Asaf Shachnai, CEO of StePac and MAPfresh Holdings.

“Our unwavering focus on product quality, innovation and customer service drives our strong organic growth, and Nili will enable us to accelerate our inorganic growth as we seek additional acquisition opportunities in the industry.”

Josef Mandelbaum, general partner with Nili, added: “Secular trends in the fresh produce industry, new post-Covid norms, and the push towards greater sustainability and environmentally friendly solutions attracted us to this category.”

According to data from Modor Intelligence, the modified atmosphere packaging market was valued at USD 12.97 billion in 2019, and it is expected to reach USD 18.28 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 5% during the forecast period (2020 – 2025).

As packaging’s primary purpose is to protect its content and as 30% of all the food produced across the world gets lost and wasted along the supply chain, enhanced and optimized packaging solutions are expected to grow to decrease this staggering amount.

Nili Capital Partners is therefore positioning itself to take advantage of this growth through acquiring Stepac.

“StePac’s strong management team, with more than 25 years of experience in post-harvest science in the fresh produce industry and a history of strong innovation, secured our belief that it was the right company to anchor our MAP platform,” Josef Mandelbaum added.

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