Global packaging group Smurfit Kappa Group plc has responded to growing demand for its bag-in-box liquid container/dispensers by opening a new plant in Ibi in south eastern Spain.
The Dublin-based group invested 28 million euros ($34.9 million) in the new ultra-modern facility which includes highly automated manufacturing lines and integrates production of bag-in-box plastic taps and multi-layer polyethylene bags under one roof.
Smurfit Kappa's latest unit, which opened on Nov. 19, will turn out several million taps and bags a month and is expected to serve the growing demand in the Mediterranean region.
The Smurfit Kappa Bag-in-Box Mediterranean Plásticos Vicent plant, which includes a product showroom and customer training center, has been built near the Mediterranean coast, north of an existing Smurfit Kappa corrugated packaging production plant in Alicante.
“This new plant is a big step up for bag-in-box activities both within our company and within the Mediterranean region. It couldn't have come at a better time, when the demand for top-class bag-in-box packaging products from a reliable partner is bigger,” said Pascual Martinez, the Spanish business's general manager.
Smurfit Kappa makes bag-in-box products with a capacity of 2 to 1,000 liters with tamper proof taps and multi layer PE bags. It runs other European bag-in-box packaging production facilities at Epernay in France; St Petersburg in Russia and two units at Alessandria in north western Italy. The group also has a bag-in-box plant at Pilar near Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The mainly corrugated paperboard based packaging group, which employs 41,000 in operations at more than 300 sites in 35 countries worldwide, also manufactures plastics based products including bulk liquid containers and pouches, as well as carrying handles.