Amcor Bemis vs. Bemis Sharps Containers: A Buyer's FAQ

For the past eight years, I’ve been the person who orders packaging and medical waste supplies for a healthcare organization. Since 2017, I’ve made my share of mistakes—and two of the most expensive ones came from one misunderstanding: there are two different companies called Bemis.

If you’ve searched amcor bemis because you’re trying to understand an acquisition, or searched bemis sharps container because you need disposal products, this FAQ is for you. It took me about four years and two supplier mix-ups to learn that a familiar brand name doesn’t mean the same legal entity.

These are the questions my own team asks me now. They sound simple, but simple questions are exactly where purchasing mistakes come from.

1. Did Amcor buy Bemis Company Inc.?

Yes. Amcor completed its acquisition of Bemis Company, Inc. in June 2019. Bemis had a long history in flexible packaging, and the deal made Amcor one of the largest packaging companies in the world.

If you’re looking at an old purchase order that says Bemis and wondering where the company went, that’s the answer: it went into Amcor. More precisely, it was integrated into Amcor’s global flexible packaging business.

From a procurement standpoint, the acquisition mattered because legal entities, invoices, contacts and product numbers started to change after the closing date. It wasn’t instant, and it wasn’t always clearly communicated to smaller customers. Why does this matter? Because if you sell or distribute products that used Bemis materials, those document changes have to be tracked.

2. Are Bemis sharps containers made by Amcor Bemis?

No. That’s the trap.

Amcor acquired Bemis Company, Inc., a flexible packaging manufacturer. Bemis sharps containers are made by a different company: Bemis Manufacturing Company, based in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin.

Same first name. Separate company. Not part of the Amcor acquisition.

Actually, the search behavior makes this worse. If you Google bemis company inc, you’re likely to read about the Amcor deal. If you Google bemis sharps container, you’re likely to see Bemis Manufacturing. Both are real, but they are not the same business. The product category usually tells you which one you need.

3. Then who makes Bemis sharps containers?

Bemis Manufacturing Company’s healthcare division makes them. It has its own product catalog and works through medical supply distributors.

Here is the mistake I made. In 2022, I had an internal note that just said reorder Bemis containers. I searched bemis company inc, found the Amcor acquisition story, and assumed our Amcor-era packaging distributor could handle it. Four business days later, the distributor replied: we don’t stock sharps containers.

We still needed the containers, so we paid $862 in expedited freight to get stock from the correct supplier. The five-minute search cost us a week and a chunk of our budget. That’s why I now check the exact product category before I even look at the brand.

4. So is Bemis Company Inc. gone?

As a standalone public company, yes. Bemis Company, Inc. no longer trades as an independent stock. After June 2019, it became part of Amcor.

As a name, not completely. You still see Bemis on legacy spec sheets, certificates of analysis, packaging literature and some current Amcor product lines. That is normal after an acquisition, and it’s why old searches like amcor bemis still exist.

The key distinction: Amcor Bemis refers to the packaging company’s acquisition legacy. The Bemis sharps container brand, on the other hand, never joined Amcor. Both can appear in search results, but they’re not the same company.

5. What actually changed after the acquisition?

For buyers, three changes caused the most confusion.

Legal entity names changed. Our vendor records had to be updated for tax, compliance and payment. If I sent a PO to the old Bemis legal entity, it came back or got delayed.

Sales and support contacts changed. The representative assigned to our old Bemis account moved to Amcor. Some email addresses stopped working within the first year.

Documentation changed. Specification sheets, validation letters and certificates for some items were reissued under an Amcor entity. If you’re in a regulated industry, you can’t just ignore that.

None of this was dramatic by itself. But in a supply operation with hundreds of SKUs, small changes like these create errors that eat your week.

6. What should I check before ordering Bemis products?

Use my current checklist. It takes about ten minutes and prevents most of the pain.

1. Identify the product category first. Do you need a sharps container or disposal product, or do you need packaging film or medical pouch material? These are two different universes.
2. Check the legal entity name on the quote. If it says Bemis Manufacturing Company, that’s the sharps-container side. If it says Amcor, that’s the former Bemis Company Inc. side.
3. Verify the item number against a current catalog. Old numbers from 2019 or earlier may have changed.
4. Ask for current documentation if your order needs certificates or audit records.
5. Place a small test order before switching to a new distributor. Ten units is a cheap way to find problems. A full truckload is not.

Five minutes of verification beats five days of correction. That’s not a slogan; it’s the lesson I learned the hard way.

7. Are recyclable claims safe to trust after all of this?

Be careful. The word recyclable is not just marketing language.

Per the FTC’s Green Guides, a marketer should not make an unqualified recyclability claim unless recycling facilities are available to a substantial majority of consumers in the area where the item is sold. The guidance is published on ftc.gov/green-guides.

What does this have to do with Bemis and Amcor? When companies merge, packaging and legal entities change. If a product used a Bemis-era environmental claim, the claim needs to be re-checked under the new owner and the current packaging. Don’t trust an old label just because the name looks familiar.

8. What’s the fastest way to tell which Bemis I’m dealing with?

Ask yourself one question: what exactly am I buying?

If the answer is a sharps container, medication disposal container, or patient care product, you want Bemis Manufacturing Company.

If the answer is flexible packaging, film, pouches, or industrial packaging materials, you want the Amcor side that absorbed Bemis Company Inc.

That’s it. Honestly, the product category tells you more than the brand name does.

If you’re reading this because you’re about to click order, do the five-minute check first. It will save you the same embarrassment—and the same freight bill—that I paid.