Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Do you have any comments on CCL Industries as an investment? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

CCL Industries, $124.79, symbol CCL.B on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 32.3 million; Market cap: $4.3 billion; www.cclind.com), makes packaging products for the food, health care, automotive and personal care industries. Major customers include Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson. The company gets 83% of its revenue by making pressure-sensitive labels for plastic bottles and other forms of packaging. CCL also makes aluminum aerosol cans and beverage bottles (12% of revenue) and flexible plastic tubes (5%). The U.S. supplies 45% of the company’s revenue, followed by Europe (29%), Asia (10%), Mexico and Brazil (9%) and Canada (7%). The company has a long history of expanding through acquisitions. In July 2013, it paid $486.7 million U.S. for the office and consumer products division of Avery Dennison Corp., symbol AVY on New York. This business makes labels, binders, dividers, sheet protectors and writing instruments under the Avery brand. In February 2014, CCL acquired two private companies that make labels and plastic tubes at three plants in New Jersey…