Acquisition Expands Medical Packaging Options Globally

Oliver Healthcare Packaging has acquired CleanCut Technologies, uniting two similar-minded medical packaging companies.

Oliver Healthcare Packaging has acquired CleanCut Technologies, an FDA-registered and ISO 13485 certified medical packaging provider located in Anaheim, CA. “Acquiring CleanCut gives us even more cleanroom production, plus scale and access to West Coast medical device manufacturers,” Mike Benevento, president and CEO of Oliver Healthcare Packaging, told MD+DI. “And Oliver brings scale and global reach to CleanCut, given Oliver’s six global manufacturing locations.”

The acquisition adds to Oliver’s four existing product lines, which include rollstock (coated and uncoated), pouches, die-cut lids, and mounting cards, Benevento explained. Thanks to the acquisition, Oliver will acquire CleantCut’s full portfolio including its patented DISK (Dispenser Integrated System Kit), clipless dispensers for catheters and guidewires, mounting cards, pouches, lids, cartons, and shippers. “Oliver’s mounting card business was the smallest but fastest-growing segment in terms of percentage,” he added. “For long devices, mounting cards are a great alternative to costlier rigid trays. They provide stability in a pouch while preventing abrasion or puncture, reducing the risk of a sterile breach.”

CleanCut won a 2014 Bronze Medical Design Excellence Award for its DISK. It recently expanded the DISK platform with the Dual Hoop Catheter DISK (shown below) featuring a second clipless dispenser for holding a second catheter.

“These clipless dispensers offer distinctive advantages,” said Benevento.

CleanCut has also developed an innovative approach to loading devices onto mounting cards called ELF (Easy Loading Fixture). The custom-designed fixture releases retention elements simultaneously on the card within seconds. “Sometimes a device can be difficult to load, so ELF streamlines assembly,” he said. Such innovations demonstrate that CleanCut has “different approaches to design itself,” said Benevento. Its “design and prototyping services complement Oliver’s business, focusing on quick turnaround, rapid response for customers. CleanCut can help Oliver take our design concepts even further.”

In terms of future changes to CleanCut’s product offerings or its 70,000-sq-ft facility, which includes ISO Class 7 and Class 8 cleanroom manufacturing, warehousing, and office space, there are plans to “replicate CleanCut’s products and processes in Europe and Asia,” said Benevento. In addition, Oliver “may extend Oliver’s pouch-making capabilities to Anaheim to serve the West coast.”

Benevento added that the acquisition will give global customers access to CleanCut’s product lines, and for companies concerned about redundancy, Oliver will replicate CleanCut’s capabilities at more than one site.

“It is a great company for us—we do things similarly,” he said. “We have similar quality systems, and CleanCut’s competencies are on par with Oliver’s approach. Customers can continue to count on CleanCut for products manufactured to the highest standards.”

“Oliver and CleanCut Technologies – it’s a partnership we are all extremely proud to be a part of,” said Tim Bell, president of CleanCut Technologies, in a news statement. “There is great collaboration between our two companies, and we see this as an important part of our collective evolution as a leading provider of sterile barrier packaging to the global healthcare industry. We look forward to working together to provide the exceptional service and support our customers need to achieve their goals.”

“We are thrilled to extend a warm welcome to the entire CleanCut team,” added Benevento in the statement.