corrugated packaging giant ds smith has hit the acquisition trail again, snapping up duropack for around £220mduropack is a recycled corrugated board packaging business and operates across south eastern europe. ds smith is buying the operation from cp group 2.according to ds smith, duropack has &ldquonumber one or two market positions in many of the geographies it operates&rdquo. in 2014 the business delivered ebitda of &euro41mn and ebit of &euro22m on turnover of &euro273m.miles roberts, ds smith chief exectutive said &ldquoduropack is an excellent business and a highly complementary fit. it is a further important step in our strategy to leverage our scale and strengthen our geographic footprint. duropack has high quality assets with market leading positions. we look forward to it contributing to the overall growth of ds smith in attractive markets where we were previously underrepresented.&rdquomeanwhile, ds smith has also announced its trading update for the three month period to 31 january 2015. it said that volumes have been ahead of the runrate achieved in the first half of the year and remained positive in all regions, with central europe and italy particularly strong.the company added that it had completed the disposal of its testliner mill in nantes, france, which had capacity of around 60,000 tonnes. the move is part of ds smith&rsquos strategy to exit paper manufacturing that does not complement its packaging business. there will be an exceptional charge of £9m, of which £7m is noncash.roberts added &ldquosince our halfyear, we have continued to make good progress with our customers, benefitting from our differentiated commercial offering and the ongoing roll out of our design centres. our volume performance has been strong, as the rapidly changing retail environment and consumer buying patterns make welldesigned recycled packaging increasingly relevant.&rdquo 
