British sustainable packaging company DS Smith has signed an agreement to acquire Serbia-based packaging company Bosis doo for an undisclosed amount.

This deal will be structured as a share transaction, Smith said.

It is scheduled to be completed during the second half of the financial year after all necessary customary closing conditions are met.

Once the deal is closed, the total packaging operations handled by Smith in Eastern Europe will include a total of 29 box facilities alongside its other manufacturing plants.

All these regional plants currently employ more than 7,000 people in the region.

Bosis doo is a family-owned business founded in 1982 that mainly focuses on serving the fast-moving consumer goods market, and will support Smith's strategy to drive higher growth and margin opportunities in the region through Smith's 'sustainable performance packaging customer proposition'.

Smith's regional managing director for East Europe Reinier Schlatmann said: “This new investment will support our medium and long-term strategy and growth ambitions across the DS Smith East Region.

“It will expand our footprint and portfolio with advanced technology and capabilities that allow us to support our customers better in achieving their ambitious environmental goals and offering new plastic replacement innovations.”

Bosis doo currently has 140 employees working from the company’s only site in Valjevo, Serbia.

Bosis doo founder and owner Bogoljub Pantelić said: “Following 41 years of successful, responsible and sustainable business, during which Bosis doo grew from a small family-owned screen printing shop into one of the regionally recognised players in the production of offset cardboard packaging and blister packaging, the time came for a new phase in the development of Bosis doo.”