KING OF PRUSSIA, PA. (Nov. 27, 3:30 p.m. ET) — Tekni-Plex Inc. will spend $9 million to upgrade and expand its packaging plant in Flemington, N.J.

The project will take 18 months to complete and will enhance technology and increase capacity at the plant, officials with King of Prussia, Pa.-based Tekni-Plex said in a Nov. 27 news release. The plant makes multi-layer flexible packaging structures for heat-seal and pressure-sensitive closure liners.

Those structures and liners are used in several markets, including pharmaceutical, cosmetic and automotive. The plant also makes lidding foils for pharmaceutical blister packs and medical device packaging and pouch materials for the pharmaceutical market.

Manufacturing work done at the Flemington site includes extrusion, dry bond lamination, coating, slitting and printing. Most plastic products made at the plant are based on PET or polyethylene. Products based on aluminum, paper and cardboard also are produced there.

The expansion will include buying and installing new machinery, a company representative said, but will not require a physical expansion of the 140,000 square-foot plant. The project also is expected to create new jobs at the 60-employee plant, but an exact number was unavailable.

“We expect the work force to grow as the business grows,” the representative said.

Expanding the plant “enhances our ability to meet the needs of our expanding customer base with high-quality, competitively-prices products,” flexibles division vice president and general manager David Andrulonis said in the release.

Tekni-Plex consists of nine companies the firm has acquired over its 45-year history. Other products made by the firm include PVC garden hose (made by Swan Hose) and PVC compounds (made by Colorite Compounds). The Colorite business grew earlier this year when it installed a new American Kuhne-brand medical extrusion line at its plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The new line will be used to make PVC compounds for the medical market.

Tekni-Plex reported annual sales of about $655 million for the year ended June 30, an increase of more than 5 percent from the previous 12-month period. Since 2008, Tekni-Plex has been majority-owned by investment firms Oaktree Capital Management LP of Los Angeles and Avenue Capital Group of New York.