Producer
Novelis Inc.
American aluminum rolling company (HQ Atlanta GA; wholly owned by Hindalco Industries, Birla Group India; ~$18B revenue); world's largest producer of rolled aluminum products including pharmaceutical-grade aluminum foil used as blister pack lidding. Novelis' pharmaceutical foil division produces ultra-thin aluminum foil (20-45 µm) with pharmaceutical-grade cleanliness and pin-hole free specifications for blister lidding. Novelis is simultaneously the largest recycler of used aluminum beverage cans in North America (Coors Light, Bud Light cans) — the same company that provides the aluminum for beer cans also provides the pharmaceutical-grade aluminum foil lid on European blister packs. Novelis was spun off from Alcan (Canadian aluminum company) and acquired by Hindalco (India's Birla Group aluminum company) in 2007 for $6B — making an Indian industrial conglomerate the owner of the world's largest aluminum rolling company and a key pharmaceutical packaging material supplier.
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Beverage Can Stock (World #1)
40%Automotive Aluminum
25%Pharmaceutical + Specialty Foil
20%Architectural + Specialty
15%
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Did you know2023
Novelis Inc. (Atlanta GA; Hindalco Industries/Birla Group India subsidiary; ~$18B revenue) is the world's largest aluminum rolling company, producing aluminum sheet for automotive bodies (BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Ford), beverage cans (Coors Light, Budweiser), and pharmaceutical blister pack foil. The same Novelis plant in Oswego, New York that rolls aluminum for Ford F-150 truck bodies also produces the pharmaceutical-grade foil that seals blister packs of ibuprofen tablets. Novelis is also the world's largest aluminum recycler — its Berthsdorf Germany recycling center melts used aluminum cans and returns them to rolled product for new can production. The aluminum lifecycle: Hindalco India mines bauxite → refines into alumina → smelts into aluminum → Novelis rolls into foil → pharmaceutical companies seal drug blisters → patients open blisters → aluminum foil goes to Novelis recycling → the same atoms become new aluminum. An Indian industrial conglomerate (Birla Group) owns the material flow of the pharmaceutical blister pack foil from mine to recycled metal.
Novelis Inc. ↗Origin2023
Novelis was created in 2005 when Alcan (Montreal; one of the world's largest aluminum producers) was required to spin off its flat-rolled products business as a condition of the European Commission's approval of Alcan's acquisition of Pechiney (French aluminum). The spinoff created Novelis as an independent Atlanta-based company. Two years later, in 2007, Hindalco Industries (part of the Aditya Birla Group, Mumbai) acquired Novelis for $6 billion — at the time the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian company, and a remarkable strategic move for an Indian aluminum company with no US presence. Birla Group paid a premium for Novelis specifically because flat-rolled aluminum for beverage cans is a stable recurring revenue business with high customer switching costs: can producers tool their filling lines to specific aluminum alloys and gauges; changing suppliers requires retooling. The Canadian/French aluminum flat-rolling business created by post-WWII capacity expansion is now owned by an Indian industrial family whose fortune was originally built in textiles (Grasim Industries).
Novelis Inc. ↗