Continuing a recent round of growth, Klöckner Pentaplast of America Inc. has purchased a Portuguese film maker and plans to expand a U.S. plant.
The Gordonsville, Va., firm will expand capacity for PVC calendered rigid film in Rural Retreat, Va., marketing manager Michael Ryan said at Pack Expo International 2002, held Nov. 3-7 in Chicago. The work should be complete by October.
The expansion is the company's second in Rural Retreat during the past year, as it attempts to meet rising customer demands, Ryan said.
In July the company completed a $10 million expansion to double capacity for its transverse-direction oriented films at that plant.
At Pack Expo, the company said that TDO line has been extended to include new high-shrink, glycol-modified PET film used for full-body sleeve labels. The products are used on containers that have narrow neck openings, which require uniform shrinkage.
The company did not disclose how much it spent or how many workers it added for the most recent expansion, which will provide vinyl film for packaging, print and specialty applications. The 200,000-square-foot facility now employs more than 200.
Klöckner Pentaplast also has purchased Neoplastica Holding SGPS SA of Porto, Portugal, a major worldwide producer of extruded polyester and polystyrene barrier films. Neoplastica's films are used in controlled-atmosphere packaging and modified-atmosphere packaging in Europe.
The firm's multilayer barrier films provide a new wrinkle to Klöckner's barrier film line: ``This provides a major investment into base webs, a product extension for barrier films,'' Ryan said.
The films contain as many as seven components that can be customized.
Neoplastica's four plants are in Portugal, the Netherlands and Spain, where it has two facilities. The plants can make as much as 100 million pounds annually of the special barrier film. The firm had 2001 sales of about $80 million. Sale price was not disclosed.
Klöckner has no immediate plans to bring Neoplastica's technology to North America, Ryan said, since Klöckner has several U.S.-based barrier film facilities.
The company continues its growth under new owners. Cinven Ltd. of Frankfurt, Germany, bought the firm earlier this year.
