Global packaging and labels producer Constantia Flexibles Group has announced it is to close its food packaging production plant in Bucharest, Romania, later this year with the loss of around 90 jobs.
The shutdown, due to be completed in July, is part of a company plan to consolidate the European manufacturing footprint of its film-based flexible packaging products.
Vienna, Austria-based Constantia Flexibles will continue to serve snack foods and confectionary customers currently supplied by the Bucharest unit from other plants at Kleszczów in central Poland; Ankara, Turkey; and Weiden, Germany.
The group's Food Europe Division provides film-based packaging for the dairy, processed meats, confectionary and processed foods manufacturing industries from a dozen production sites in eight countries.
“We will carry out this closure in a fair and socially responsible way, while at the same time ensuring that our valued customers experience no disruption in supply,” assured divisional executive vice president Stefan Grote.
He that the production capacity transfer would also mean “we can offer a dedicated plant concept to our customers in the long term thus optimizing order placement, production scheduling, logistics and quality.”
Constantia Flexibles, which is the fourth ranked packaging/labels producer worldwide, currently employs about 10,000 at 56 plants across 24 countries around the globe.
Last month, the Austrian group announced its annual sales for 2016 had surpassed €2 billion for the first time in its history. The preliminary results release showed a group sales increase of 8.6 percent against the previous year to total around €2.1 billion.
Constantia, which recently made several labels/packaging business acquisitions in South Africa and Asia, saw its operating profit rise of 14.7 percent to €301.8 million in 2016.