PACKAGING BRIEFS Tuesday, March 13

Aagard appoints Guttridge to sales team.
Jim Guttridge has joined packaging machinery manufacturer Aagard as a key account and area sales manager. Guttridge joins the firm with nearly four decades of sales experience at various packaging machinery firms. He will cover the western U.S., working out of his home office in Mesquite, NV during winter months and the company's Rockford, IL location in summer.
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Alpha Packaging acquires Vanga Products
Alpha Packaging has acquired Vanga Products (Plastics) Inc. of Surrey, BC, a move designed to expand Alpha's blow molding capacity in the Pacific Northwest. Vanga makes HDPE and PET bottles and jars for the nutritional, pharmaceutical, household chemical and food markets. In addition to making PET and HDPE jars and bottles, Alpha also has a division, Technigraph, that provides environmentally-friendly container decorating services to personal care brands.

Bemis to upgrade plant, add up to 40 jobs
Wisconsin-based flexible packaging and pressure-sensitive material supplier Bemis co. has announced it plans to invest $10.6 million in its operations in Terre Haute, IN, creating up to 40 jobs by 2013. The company will purchase and install new printing-press equipment at its 1 million sq. ft. facility by the end of the year. The company employs 778 people full time in Terre Haute and has begun hiring new manufacturing associates.

Amcor Flexibles wins packaging awards from EAFA
Amcor Flexibles has received the Overall Excellence Award and Product Preservation Award from the European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA). The company received the Overall Excellence Award won with Amcor Canny in recognition of high scores in four of five categories - Marketing + Design, Consumer Convenience, Technical Innovation and Resource Efficiency - and the Product Preservation Award won with Amcor Formpack Dessiflex Plus. Amcor Canny is a wrinkle-free aluminum thin-wall bowl geared toward premium food products.

FCA Packaging announces its ISTA Certified packaging test lab

FCA Packaging, a company that provides custom-designed industrial packaging solutions, has announced its Design and Engineering Test Lab and its professionals have achieved ISTA certification. The International Safe Transit Association is the author of test procedures that define how packages should perform to ensure protection of their contents.
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