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Weyerhaeuser Antes Up, Wears Down Willamette, Earns A Hard-Fought Containerboard Market Battle
For nearly two years Willamette Industries, Portland, OR, fought tooth and nail to fend off what it termed "unsolicited, hostile, and unacceptably low" acquisition offers by rival Weyerhaeuser, Federal Way, WA. It now appears that Weyerhaeuser's relentless tactics, which included the courting of Willamette's shareholders, staging and winning proxy battles for seats on Willamette's board, and inching up its offer pennies at a time, will pay off.
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Plastipak Gains Exclusive Rights To Sidel's ACTIS Technology To Serve South American Market
Plastipak Packaging, Inc., Plymouth, MI, and blowmolding machinery supplier Sidel, Octeville-sur-mer, France, have entered into a commercial agreement which gives Plastipak exclusive rights to Sidel's ACTIS technology and machinery to produce and supply plastic barrier containers throughout South America. Plastipak is currently the only commercial supplier of ACTIS-treated bottles in North and South America.
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IPN Launches Latest Design On Spout Fitment For Pouches
Reclosable dispensing spouts have proven to increase the value of stand-up pouches much in the same way resealable zippers have. IPN USA Corp., Peachtree City, GA, has developed a new line of fitments branded as Clean-Spout. The fitments are designed specifically for the dispensing of liquids from stand-up pouches ranging in size from 10ml to five liters. The Clean-Spout fitment is comprised of two parts, a high-density polyethylene weldbase that seals into the pouch, and a 10mm tamper evident polypropylene closure.
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Among Environmentalists, Bev Producers, Recyclers, Not All Parties Agree With Container Recycling Study Findings
While the findings of a cooperative project to evaluate the viability of programs to economically recover discarded plastic beverage containers have shown positive results, one major industry player believes the numbers are skewed in favor of the study's sponsors' preferred recover methods. The report, "Understanding Beverage Container Recycling: A Value Chain Assessment," is the result of a cooperative effort initiated by Atlanta-based Businesses and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling (BEAR), a project of Global Green USA, and supported by certain environmentalists, soft drink producers, recyclers, and government agencies.
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Costs Vs. Perspective: Camps Divided On Timing, Reasons For Outsourcing Package Design Function
During the next 12 months, the value of outsourced services in general U.S. manufacturing will reach $340bn. Among packaging companies, nearly 60% are outsourcing one or more of their manufacturing processes, according to figures gleaned from a survey by the Contract Manufacturers Institute, Las Vegas, NV. As outsourcing grows in popularity -- 15% annually according to the New York-based Outsourcing Institute -- it would stand to reason that as consumer product companies continue to consolidate, certain functions, including package design, may increasingly fall under the category of "non-essential" internal operations.
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Owens-Illinois Helps To Further Consolidate Glass Container Market
The already tightly consolidated glass container market continues to shrink as Owens-Illinois, Toledo, OH, completed its acquisition of the Canadian glass container assets of Consumers Packaging Inc. for $150mn. The Canadian business, which will operate as O-I Canada Corp., will be headquartered in Toronto, ON, Canada, and have annual sales of approximately $300mn.
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Are Active Packaging Materials Considered Food Additives?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's system for clearing the use of "Food Contact Substances," and changes in the handling requirements of substances "Generally Recognized As Safe" could significantly affect the approval of active packaging technologies used in food and beverage processing and packaging. Packaging Strategies recently spoke with Eric F. Greenberg, Of Counsel to the law firm Ungaretti & Harris, where he concentrates on food and drug law and packaging law and litigation, about this subject.
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AEP Industries Expands Reach Into Australasia With VisyPak Acquisition
U.S.-based flexible packaging producer AEP Industries, through its Australasian operation AEP Industries Australasia Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, Australia, has acquired the films and laminations/liquid bag systems (LBS) business of Melbourne-based VisyPak, a division of Visy Industries, for an undisclosed amount.
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Klockner-Werke Sells Film Division Pentaplast To British Equity Firm
German investment group WCM Beteiligungs und Grundbesitzgesellschaft, which bought the majority of shares in Klockner-Werke AG this past January, has agreed to sell sheet and film division Klockner Pentaplast to British private equity firm Cinven for 925mn Euro (US $827mn).
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Anti-Microbials For Packaging Must Perform Acceptance 'Balancing Act'
Even with the advent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's system for clearing "food contact substances," and changes in the handling requirements of substances considered "generally recognized as safe," compounders and blenders still walk a fine line when addressing potential applications of "active" anti-microbial scavengers with packagers and producers.
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EarthShell Packaging Moves Into Retail Market
EarthShell Packaging, Santa Barbara, CA, makers of 100% biodegradable packaging which consists primarily of limestone and starch, is taking its first foray into retail sales by introducing its plates and bowls at select Wal-Mart stores.
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Crown Cork & Seal Faces Hurdles In Trying To Trim Operations
Although Crown Cork & Seal, Philadelphia, PA, has not officially identified the businesses it is looking to sell in order to raise at least $1.2bn as part of its restructuring plan, analysts say Constar -- Crown's PET blowmolding business -- has joined the list of possible sell-off targets, which also include Crown's healthcare and beauty packaging business Risdon-AMS and its closure businesses.
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A Year After ANC Acquisition, Rexam BCA's Role Is Clear: 'Help Rexam Become The Largest Consumer Packaging Company In The World'
Rexam Beverage Can Americas (Rexam BCA), based in Chicago, IL, is Rexam's largest sector, generating $1.6bn in sales with 23 manufacturing plants throughout the U.S., Mexico, and Brazil. Packaging Strategies recently conducted a "virtual" interview via e-mail with newly appointed president and ceo of Rexam BCA, William R. Barker, who heads up Rexam's beverage can operations in North and South America, to find out what his growth plans are for the company and what new beverage can technologies we can expect from the group.
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Top Equipment Suppliers Emphasize Importance Of Barrier Technologies To Drive PET Growth
When there is advancement in PET material technologies, there's often a corresponding growth in PET equipment development, noted Bill LeMaire, contributing editor to Packaging Strategies, when opening the "Supply-Side Strategies" session at Packaging Strategies 2001. Goran Grosskopf, chairman, Tetra Laval Group; Thomas Jordan, vice president, Plastics Div., Krones; and Tony Hooimeijer, president, Packaging Systems Div., SIG Plastics Technologies, each offered their companies' strategies into PET markets, mainly through barrier technology offerings.
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Waters, Dairy 'Naturals' For PET
If ever there was a pure play in the beverage category, water in PET is it. For health-conscious Americans, the once unimaginable -- buying bottled water for health and convenience -- has become a work-a-day occurrence and PET has played no small part in promoting an image of product purity and consumer convenience.
Projected to capture a share of stomach second only to carbonated soft drinks during the next four years, the growth of water -- and more specifically water in PET -- may be tested only by the limits of ever-more creative packaging design and the need to improve channel distribution management.
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Beer In PET Growth A Matter Of Technology And Timing
With the acknowledgement that previous industry projections for unit volumes of 400-700mn units in North America by the end of this year was "aggressive," Gordon Bockner, president of Business Development Associates, firmly believes those figures will hold true. "It was a matter of timing," said Bockner in his opening presentation to PET Strategies 2001.
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