Ardagh chairman looks forward to expand aluminium can business with its new New-York listed entity

Paul Richard Coulson, the largest shareholder and chairman of Ardagh Group, is reportedly shifting his attention to aluminium cans with the creation of a New York-listed Ardagh Metal Packaging (AMP). Aluminium cans are high in demand and easier and cheaper to recycle than glass packaging, which makes the new listed entity an attractive business to investors, said Mr Coulson.

Ardagh Metal Packaging (AMP) has a leading presence in the US and is the second-largest beverage can producer in Europe and the third-largest in North America and Brazil. According to Mr Coulson, AMP’s beverage cans are performing strongly in many parts of the US and generating abundant business for the Ardagh Group, which has more than 16,000 employees and customers like Diageo, Heineken, Pernod Ricard, Nestle, and Coca-Cola.

“[With] the growth of things like seltzers in the US, health drinks, the can has become very much part of the branding and the marketing, you are seeing now 75pc of new products getting launched in cans versus say half of that percentage five years ago,” Mr Coulson said.

Mr Coulson is of the opinion that shortage of aluminium cans in the United States and elsewhere is primarily cushioning AMP’s beverage can business in many parts of the US.

AMP expects its adjusted EBITDA to double from US$ 545 million in 2020 to over $1.1 billion in 2024, meaning that within the next years it will become the same size in terms of earnings as Ardagh Group was last year.

Oliver Graham, CEO of Ardagh Metal Beverage, will be CEO of AMP, and Shaun Murphy, COO of Ardagh, will serve as vice chairman of the company.