Dongwon Systems offers comprehensive packaging for food firms
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Dongwon Systems employees check packaging materials at the company’s Tan Tien Packaging plant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. / Courtesy of Dongwon Systems
By Lee Hyo-sik
Dongwon Systems has been providing a wide range of packaging materials to food and other consumer goods makers at home and abroad.
The company, which has become Korea’s largest packaging supplier through a series of mergers and acquisitions over the past few years, plans to take over more firms to become a global powerhouse.
The packaging unit of Dongwon Group produces plastic bottles, paper boxes and other packaging materials for companies that make processed foods, cosmetics, household items and electronics. It also manufactures industrial film.
“We are the No. 1 packaging provider for major consumer goods makers here,” company CEO Cho Jum-kun said. “Our clients also include Coca Cola, Nestle and dozens of other global consumer goods makers in 30 countries. We will continue to add more foreign firms to our customer list.”
In 2016, it earned 1.02 trillion won in sales ($877 million), up 17.2 percent from 872 billion won a year earlier. Its operating profit jumped 29 percent to 115 billion won.
In 2012, the sales of Dongwon Systems stood at only 100 billion won. But it has grown into the country’s largest packaging firm after acquiring six companies here and abroad.
In January 2013, it gobbled up Daihan Eunpakgy, which processed aluminum to produce aluminum cans. A year later, Dongwon took over Hanjin P&C, a multilayer film maker for packaging, which supplies to a number of chemical companies in the United States and Taiwan.
In October 2014, the company purchased Techpack Solutions, the largest producer of glass and plastic bottles and other beverage containers. Techpack accounts for 40 percent of Korea’s glass bottles and 25 percent of aluminum cans.
The same year, Dongwon Systems acquired Talofa Systems in American Samoa, which makes tuna cans for StarKist, the largest U.S. tuna cannery bought by Dongwon Group in 2008.
In 2015, the company also snapped up Tan Tien Packaging and Minh Viet Packaging in Vietnam.
“We have been making the best use of our two efficiently-operating Vietnamese subsidiaries to make inroads into other Southeast Asian countries,” Cho said. “We will upgrade the plants to make premium, highly functional packaging products to enter the United States, Canada and other advanced markets.”
Currently, Dongwon Systems operates 10 packaging plants in Korea and four more overseas.
“Dongwon will continue to create synergy among its domestic and foreign subsidiaries by streamlining their operations and balancing their product lines,” the CEO said. “We will spend more to enhance our R&D and marketing capabilities, and enter India and other rapidly growing consumer markets. By 2020, we will double our annual sales to 2 trillion won.”