Menasha Packaging Announces Acquisition of the Strive Group

Acquisition Enhances Menasha’s Merchandising Supply Chain Model and Strengthens Geographic Coverage

NEENAH, WIS…

Menasha Packaging Company announced today that it has acquired The Strive Group of Chicago. Both companies are family-owned and privately held. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

According to Mike Waite, president of Menasha Packaging, “The acquisition of Strive will enhance our merchandising supply chain model and strengthen our geographic coverage. Customers are increasingly turning to companies that can manage their entire merchandising process and the addition of Strive to Menasha Packaging will improve our offerings and strengthen our competitive position.”

The acquisition will make Menasha the largest independent in-store promotional solutions provider to retailers and CPGs in the United States as well as strengthen its traditional packaging business.

“The Strive acquisition,” said Jim Kotek, president and CEO of Menasha Corporation, “broadens our market penetration and the ability to provide more products and services to our customers. We believe there is an excellent strategic fit between the companies; we both are Midwest-based, family-owned companies with strong cultures and values.” Menasha Corporation is the parent of Menasha Packaging; its other businesses are ORBIS Corporation and LeveragePoint Media.

Both Menasha Packaging and Strive focus on the food, household and personal care markets and provide significant design, manufacturing, fulfillment and logistics expertise to their customers. In addition, Menasha Packaging has a strong retail relationship focus with key retail partners across the U.S. that provides an integrated approach. Menasha Packaging’s highly successful Retail Integration Group assists channel-leading retail partners and CPGs with ideation, execution and tracking of their merchandising strategies. Strive has a similar model, called the Integrated Merchandising Supply Chain, which is a collaborative approach that enables customers to develop methods and practices to improve the supply chain and merchandising processes to improve efficiency and speed to market.

Strive is headquartered in Chicago, where it has a corrugated products manufacturing facility. In addition, it has eight fulfillment operations, including six that are located within its customers’ distribution centers, and four design/sales centers across the country.

About Menasha Packaging

Menasha Packaging Company, LLC, based in Neenah, Wis., is a subsidiary of Menasha Corporation, and it has more than 1,800 employees at locations nationwide. Menasha Packaging is a leading provider of graphic consumer packaging, merchandising solutions, corrugated packaging, food packaging, shipping containers and material handling solutions and is home of the Retail Integration Group. With design, sales service centers, corrugated and paperboard plants located throughout the United States, the company’s mission is to help its customers protect, move and promote their products better than anyone else. See its website at www.menashapackaging.com.

About Menasha Corporation

Menasha Corporation is a packaging, logistics and marketing services company based in Neenah, Wisconsin. Established in 1849, it is one of America’s oldest privately held manufacturing companies and specializes in corrugated packaging and high-quality point-of-purchase displays, plastic reusable packaging and in-store consumer promotion. The company has more than 3,400 employees in facilities across the globe. Visit its web site at www.menasha.com.

About The Strive Group

Strive is a leading provider of integrated in-store promotional display solutions. The company is a trusted partner to many of the most respected consumer packaged goods companies in the world. Strive works in a highly integrated manner with its customers to develop and execute important promotional programs, including temporary displays and advertisements that are placed throughout retail stores. Through its Integrated Merchandising Supply Chain model, Strive significantly reduces the dollar and time investment that brand marketers must make to execute merchandising initiatives. See strivegroup.com.