PACKAGING BRIEFS Tuesday, Mar. 8

Coca-Cola buys remaining portion of Honest Tea
The Coca-Cola Co. has exercised its option to acquire the remaining portion of Honest Tea. The move completes a transaction which began three years ago when Coca-Cola, led by the Venturing and Emerging Brands (VEB) unit of Coca-Cola North America, purchased a minority stake in the company. Honest Tea, the leading organic bottled tea company, will continue to be based out of Bethesda, MD. To retain its entrepreneurial culture, it will operate as a standalone business under current TeaEO Seth Goldman, his management team and current Honest Tea employees. As part of the VEB team, Honest Tea will also begin to sell current VEB brands to the natural channel.

Casey Container invests in biodegradable preform plant
Casey Container Corp. has secured funding for its manufacturing equipment, including operating capital to be used in establishing its new biodegradable preform facility in the greater Phoenix, AZ, area. The company anticipates being in full production in the second quarter of 2011. Casey Container has received pre-orders for approximately 38 million preforms. With the initial equipment it is purchasing, the company will be able to produce the entire series of preorders without increasing first-year capacity at this facility. This enables the company to take on additional orders while ramping up its revenue stream. Casey Container licenses EcoPure, a revolutionary second-generation proprietary and organic additive, which-once added to a resin used to produce plastic bottle preforms-renders the plastic biodegradable. The biodegradable preforms are made of PET, HDPE and other conventional polymers, thereby offering the same performance and cost effective advantages of conventional plastics.

Sonoco named one of 2011's 100 Best Corporate Citizens

Sonoco, one of the largest diversified global packaging companies, is ranked number 61 on Corporate Responsibility magazine's recently released 12th annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List2011. CR's 100 Best Corporate Citizens List documents more than 320 data points of disclosure-harvested from publicly available information in seven categories: environment, climate change, employee relations, human rights, governance, finance and philanthropy. Sonoco received its highest rankings from CR magazine in the environment, human rights and employee relations categories.

Leading packaging machine builders join Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork program
Douglas Machine Inc., Kliklok-Woodman and Nercon Engineering & Manufacturing have joined the Rockwell Automation Machine Builder Program. The program gives end-users access to skilled machine builders that have proven their ability to deliver high-quality, innovative machinery. As part of the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork framework, the Machine Builder Program consists of industry-leading OEMs who share Rockwell Automation business values and are committed to delivering solutions that will help lower manufacturers' total cost of ownership.

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