Fosber passes to Brookfield: 900 million for Lucca corrugated champion
Closing of the deal with the Canadian fund: the 500 million revenue and 90 million ebitda group remains rooted in Lucca, where a 50 million investment to double production is underway
The Lucca-based Fosber Group, a world leader in the design and production of corrugated cardboard machinery with factories in Italia, China, Spain and the USA, has been transferred from the Chinese group Guangdong Dongfang Precision, listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, to the private equity division of Brookfield, one of the world's leading asset managers based in Toronto, Canada.
The value of the transaction, the closing of which has been announced, is USD 900 million and is explained by the excellent results achieved by the Tuscan group, which employs 1,200 people worldwide: on a 2025 turnover close to EUR 500 million, 90% of which is exported, ebitda reaches EUR 90 million.
"These results were only possible thanks to the network of highly specialised suppliers in the paper and cardboard sector that exist in the Lucca district," emphasises Fosber CEO Marco Bertola, who has not only been confirmed by the new ownership but has become global ceo. Of Fosber's 2,500 suppliers worldwide,' explains the manager, '90% are Italian and 70% are based in the Lucca area, where it feeds a strategic supply chain. Fosber's production is 40 corrugator lines per year (each 110 metres long).
From Lucca - or rather from Monsagrati in the small municipality of Pescaglia, in the valley of the Serchio river surrounded by the Apuan Alps where Fosber has its headquarters with 410 employees - 90% of the corrugator lines produced by the group start, which in the other factories produces components (as in Pamplona, Spain, or in the Milanese Quantum) or adapts and assembles the machinery made in Lucca (as in Green Bay, USA). In China, where 350 people work, they produce instead for the Chinese market.
It is precisely in Monsagrati that the construction of a new EUR 50 million plant will begin in 2025, which will allow the doubling of production. 'The investment is more than confirmed,' Bertola explains, 'the new factory will be ready in 2028 and will give strength to the industrial plan, which envisages organic growth alongside potential acquisitions.
