TricorBraun, St. Louis, formed a 50-50 joint venture in South America with Amfora Packaging, Columbia. 

"This is an exciting business combination that will allow us to gain an even deeper and more rapid foothold in a number of South American markets," says Keith Strope, president and CEO of TricorBraun.

The new joint venture will be named TricorBraun South America SAS, and will cover five countries in South America—Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Venezuela.

“We could have continued developing these markets on our own, but it would have taken substantially more time," adds Carlos Acedo, general manager of Latin America for TricorBraun. "We have aggressive growth plans, and our relationship with Amfora instantly provides us with a more fully functioning, broad-based business model."

As a result, Jose Alejandro Arango was appointed general manager of TricorBraun South America SAS, and Carlos Gama, a former packaging consultant in Mexico City, was named sales manager.

"We are very excited about the association of Amfora Packaging with TricorBraun, which enables us to bring to South America one of the world's leading packaging companies," says Arango. "TricorBraun's marketing, design and logistics capabilities are available on five continents. Coupled with an impressive network of global suppliers, our combined offering is one of the industry's most complete alternatives for plastic, glass and dispensing systems. We are confident that customers will find TricorBraun South America to be a strategic ally that provides unlimited packaging options to meet their needs and highlight their products.”