PACKAGING BRIEFS Thursday, Mar. 22

Amcor buys flexible packaging company in India
Amcor has announced the A$19.8 million acquisition of Uniglobe, a flexible packaging business based in India. The acquisition expands Amcor's existing footprint in India, a strategic high growth market for the flexibles packaging business. The business is strongly aligned with Amcor's existing business, servicing large multi-national customers within the food, personal care and health care end markets. Current management will remain with the business.

Optima acquires Doyen Medipharm
Optima—a manufacturer of innovative filling and packaging machines serving the nonwoven, pharma, and consumer and life science markets—has bought Doyen Medipharm, a specialist in converting and packaging machines with facilities in Florida, U.K. and Malaysia. During the last decades, Doyen has supplied machines to manufacturers of wound dressings, transdermal patches, oral thin films and surgical gloves. The Doyen staff will be employed by the Optima Group.

Sato America acquires Achernar of Argentina
Sato—a pioneer in the Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) industry and a leader in bar code printing, labeling and EPC/RFID solutions—has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Achernar of Argentina, a privately held corporation based in Buenos Aires, and one of the region's most renowned providers of adhesive labeling solutions.

Emerson Bearing Boston launches packaging division
Emerson Bearing of Boston—providers of bearings and related products for OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations) global markets—has launched a new packaging division to specifically cater to the bearing needs of food processing and pharmaceutical packaging industries. The new division is led by Lee Holt, marketing specialist and bearings expert, who has been with Emerson Bearing Boston for 46 years.

Guide shares design possibilities and brand impact of metallic effects
ITW Foils—a global manufacturer and distributor of technically superior foils, films and laminates—has published a new design guide for graphic designers, brand managers, printers and converters working in the package design industry. "Designed to Shine" is a comprehensive guide explaining what can be achieved by incorporating brilliant decorative effects into print and package design. It provide designer tips and tricks for using each of the effects and offers statistical data that substantiates the importance in increasing product visibility, enhancing perception of product quality, improving brand differentiation and how sales are impacted.

Stora Enso to build world-class consumer board and pulp mill in China
Stora Enso plans to build plantation-based integrated board and pulp mills at Beihai city in Guangxi, southern China. The mill site will initially include a 450,000 tons per year paperboard machine and pulp capacity of 900,000 tons per year, including necessary energy plant and auxiliary facilities. In a unique set-up, the board and pulp mills will be self-sufficiently integrated with wood supply from 120,000 hectares of self-managed eucalyptus plantations. The ultimate target is to expand the paperboard capacity to 900,000 tonnes at a later stage. The operations will be managed by an equity joint-venture company established by Stora Enso (85 percent) and the Guangxi Forestry Group (15 perfect), a state-owned company under the Guangxi provincial government. The joint venture will serve the fast-growing market for liquid packaging board and other premium consumer board grades.

Dart Container acquires Solo Cup
Dart Container Corp., based in Mason, MI, and Solo Cup Co., headquartered in Lake Forest, IL, have signed a Definitive Agreement under which Dart Container will acquire Solo in a transaction valued at approximately $1 billion. Both companies are in the consumer and foodservice disposable packaging business. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close by the third quarter of this year.

RockTenn celebrates grand opening of new folding carton plant in NC
RockTenn has celebrated the grand opening of its new Marion, NC, folding carton facility. RockTenn has already invested almost $25 million in the new Marion facility. The plant, which completes its first full month of production on March 31, 2012, plans to add a total of 124 jobs with an average annual wage that is 10 percent more than current average for McDowell County.

Linx celebrates 25 years of coding innovation
Coding and marking specialist Linx Printing Technologies is celebrating 25 years of innovation in technology and design with competition prizes. A quest to find the oldest surviving Linx continuous ink jet (CIJ) printer will form a central part of the jubilee celebrations. On Linx's 25th birthday, 6 July 2012, the owner of the oldest Linx CIJ printer in each of four global regions will be chosen to win a new Linx CIJ printer, fully installed, plus an ink and solvent pack to get them started.

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