PACKAGING BRIEFS Thursday, Mar. 24

Multivac celebrates its 50th Anniversary
Multivac is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The company was founded in 1961 by Sepp Haggenmüller in Böhen in the Allgäu and has since developed into a leading global supplier of packaging solutions for food, sterile medical products and various industrial goods. Today, the Multivac Group has more than 3,000 employees worldwide, including more than 1,300 at its headquarters in Wolfertschwenden (Allgäu), Germany. The company is synonomous with thermoforming packaging machines: more than half of the thermoforming packaging machines worldwide come from Multivac.

Klöckner Pentaplast acquires rigid films business from AMB s.r.l.
The Klöckner Pentaplast Group has acquired the PP and PS mono- and multi-layer rigid films commercial activities from AMB s.r.l. (San Daniele del Fruili, Italy) for an undisclosed sum. PP and PS mono- and multi-layer rigid films are used primarily in food and thermoforming applications. AMB will continue to operate the San Daniele del Fruili, Italy, facility for the production of its other product lines.

Portola Packaging buys closure manufacturer Integra-Seal Industries
Portola Packaging Inc. has announced its pending acquisition of Integra-Seal Industries LLC, Kingsport, Tenn., for an undisclosed amount. The sale is expected to close by the end of March 2011. Founded in 1999, Integra-Seal is a manufacturer of LDPE tamper-evident closures for dairy, juice and bottled water packaging applications. The company is primarily known for its 38mm Integra-Lock snap-on tamper-evident closure. The company also recently commercialized its tamper-evident Dyna-Seal 38mm plastic snap-screw closure.

Cereplast expands in Europe with distribution agreement for the Croatian market
Cereplast Inc., a leading manufacturer of proprietary bio-based, compostable and sustainable plastics, has entered into a distribution agreement with DMT Plasticolor to supply Cereplast bioplastic resins to the Croatian marketplace. This agreement is the fourth contract that Cereplast has entered in to in 2011 and reflects a continuing surge in demand for bioplastic resin across the pan-European marketplace. Founded in 2000, DMT Plasticolor is one of the leading suppliers of masterbatches and additives for the plastics industry in Croatia and the surrounding Adriatic countries. DMT Plasticolor has partnered with some of the largest resin suppliers in the world.

RMT Robotics celebrates 30 years
RMT Robotics has celebrated its 30th anniversary at the ProMat 2011 show. RMT's 30-year focus on the use of gantry robotics in warehouse and distribution applications distinctively positions RMT as one of the most experienced and technically unique solution providers in the materials handling industry, particularly as industry turns their attention to lean distribution and automated order picking initiatives. The company has also entered into a global, nonexclusive sales agent agreement with Adept Technology for the promotion and sale of its ADAM intelligent mobile robots.

Gerresheimer acquires Brazilian pharmaceutical plastic packaging company
Gerresheimer AG, one of the leading worldwide suppliers to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, has acquired the Brazilian company Védat to strengthen its pharmaceutical plastic packaging business in South America. Védat is a major Brazilian manufacturer of pharmaceutical plastic packaging products, especially plastic closures.

Rollguard hires marketing manager
Rollguard—part of Great Northern Corp.'s Specialty Group and the industry-leading developer and supplier of sustainable protective packaging systems for rolled and cylindrical products—has hired Heather Marx as marketing manager. She is responsible for analyzing, developing and expanding current markets and products, as well as helping in the development of new ones.

Intertape Polymer closes last Ontario plant
Intertape Polymer is closing and selling its last Ontario manufacturing facility nearly three years after a strike made the plant unprofitable.

Aagard adds service account manager; promotes engineer
Glenn Downing has joined Aagard as a Service Account Manager. Downing has a strong manufacturing background, having served in multiple leadership roles for Banta Publications Group, RR Donnelley and, most recently, ITW (Illinois Tool Works). His responsibilities are to act as a customer liaison. The focus of this position is to lead continuous improvement project with the goal of zero unplanned downtime with all Aagard equipment.

Additionally, Brad VanderTuin was recently promoted at Aagard from a product development engineer to engineering manager. VanderTuin started at Aagard in 2004 as a mechanical design engineer. He worked as mechanical design engineer, project manager, product manager and applications engineer. He will be responsible for managing Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Machine Controls, Machine Standards, and will continue to act as a Project Technical Lead and a member of the Applications Development Team.

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