Speciality plastic and packaging component manufacturer Essentra PLC is pushing forward with acquisitions in a bid to more than double its Asia Pacific sales, with a planned spend of up to $286 million.

With a key focus on health and personal care packaging units and boosting its distribution, the company has been actively seeking acquisition in a bid to boost its sales in Asia to around a third. This follows on from the company’s biggest deal ever last year, which saw it acquire the specialist packaging division of Clondalkin for $455 million.

The desire to increase its foothold in the Asian market comes after Finance Director Stefan Schellinger told Euro News that the market opportunity in the country was far greater than the company’s current footprint there.

The company currently gets half of its sales from Europe while a third is from the Americas and the rest from Asia. Indeed, the push will come in the face of warnings regarding the Chinese market, in particular engineering exposure to weak emerging markets due to low demand in China.