Multinational packaging company NNZ agreed to acquire Levy Brothers & Knowles (LBK), a UK flexible packaging supplier with bases in Liverpool and Glasgow. The deal was advised by Benchmark International and significantly increases NNZ's share of agricultural and industrial packaging markets.

Federal-Mogul Powertrain completed the acquisition of UK-based Controlled Power Technologies, a developer of 12V and 48V electric motor generators for hybridisation and electrification. The unit will operate as Federal-Mogul Controlled Power; financial terms were not disclosed.

Invertek Drives is constructing a 5,500 square metre production facility at Welshpool, Powys, Wales, to raise drive output to more than 400,000 units per year, with completion due next year.

Northern Ireland food manufacturer Davison Canners received a GBP 3.1 million financing package from HSBC, added new product lines and created 50 jobs, and won new contracts from Booths and Aldi.

J A Harrison officially opened a £2.8 million gasket and seal manufacturing facility on the Greengate Industrial Estate in Middleton, Oldham, which has already created 12 jobs and is expected to create 30 more over three years.

Progroup has broken ground on a GBP 75 million corrugated cardboard factory in Ellesmere Port, UK, to replace Prowell's current site, with Peel Logistics Property supporting the development; it is due to be fully operational in Q4 2018.

Babcock DSG, part of Babcock International Group, placed a single-lot GBP 94,000 contract with Schoeller Allibert for the supply of tote boxes and lids, running from October 2017 to February 2018 in Telford.

McLaren Packaging is investing £3 million in a new 20,000 sq ft manufacturing, design and testing centre at Broadleys Business Park in Stirling for subsidiary Blue Box Design. Construction began in October 2017, with completion scheduled for April 2018 and 18 new jobs planned.

Prowell, part of Germany's Progroup, received unanimous planning approval in Ellesmere Port for a two-phase corrugated board plant on Lees Lane, to be developed by Peel Investments. The first phase is expected to bring investment of around £120m, with groundbreaking planned for early November 2017.

CPM Holdings acquired Manchester-based Proline Engineering, a supplier of high-speed conveyance solutions and services for the metal packaging industry, which will join Greenbank Technology in CPM's metal packaging platform.

Wartsila is relocating its valve manufacturing operations to a new 5,570 square metre engineering and production facility in the Humber Enterprise Park in Brough, England. The move is expected to be completed before the end of 2017.

Dubai-based Hotpack Packaging Industries completed a property deal in Wrexham, Wales, for its UK headquarters and manufacturing plant, and plans to create 200 to 250 jobs. The company had earlier announced a GBP 50 million investment.

ElringKlinger (GB) invested almost GBP1.5m in a six-year project worth about GBP5m to produce two components for Ford's latest engines from 2018, creating up to 20 jobs at its Redcar plant.

Wood was awarded a five-year onshore maintenance services contract by Total for its Lindsey Oil Refinery in North Killingholme, Lincolnshire, UK, with an option to extend up to two years. The contract starts on 1 January 2018.

UK public purchasing body ESPO awarded West Design Products Limited a framework contract worth GBP 12,000,000 for the supply of glues, adhesives and adhesive tapes to its general warehouse and customers. The award was published on 21 October 2017.

Flowtech Fluidpower plc acquired Group HES Ltd, a Gloucester-based fluid power solutions provider with branches in Birmingham, Durham, Gloucester and Leeds, adding it to its Power Motion Control division. The deal was announced on 12 October 2017.

RPC Tedeco-Gizeh extended its contract as a preferred supplier to NIVO Group, a UK buying group, to produce plastic vending cups for its members throughout the UK.

Belgium's VPK Packaging Group acquired a 30% stake in CorrBoard UK, the Scunthorpe corrugated sheet consortium, from Corrugated Synergies International, and also made a capital increase. The investment aims to advance sheet production volume.

Wartsila Valves, formerly Shipham Valves, is relocating its entire manufacturing operations from Hawthorn Avenue to a 60,000 sq ft premises at Humber Enterprise Park in Hull to allow for expansion.

Gruppo ASA installed a new aerosol can production line at its Liverpool, UK site in October 2017, investing about EUR 1 million and doubling the plant's aerosol capacity.

Aquatronic Group Management's Aquatech Pressmain and Renzland Powergates have moved into a new £1.4m factory, Renzland House, in Copford, Colchester, creating five new jobs. The group makes water pumps, pressurisation units and gates.

Prowel plans a new manufacturing plant next to junction 10 of the M53 near Ellesmere, designed by UMC Architects, to produce up to 235,000 tonnes per year of corrugated board sheets. The article reports a £65m investment, although its headline cites £25m.

MHI Vestas Offshore Wind was selected as preferred turbine supplier for the 860MW Triton Knoll project off the Lincolnshire coast, UK, to be developed by a 50/50 joint venture of innogy and Statkraft. It is expected to supply 90 of its 9.5MW turbines, and a plan to safeguard or create 800 UK jobs was agreed.

MHI Vestas Offshore Wind won a deal to supply 90 V164-9.5 MW turbines for Triton Knoll's circa 860MW offshore wind farm off the UK east coast. The announcement was made on 18 September 2017.

Macfarlane agreed a £16.75m deal to acquire Nottingham-based packaging distributor and corrugate supplier Greenwoods Stock Boxes, which had £14m sales in the year to April 2017. Greenwoods has a small manufacturing facility in Melton Mowbray.

Private equity investor LDC backed the management buyout of Stuart Turner, a UK water pump and pressure solutions business, to fund buy-and-build growth in commercial pumps. Existing shareholders are exiting; the deal value was not disclosed.

Mono Pumps built a new manufacturing facility in Patricroft, Eccles, Manchester, with a reported project value of GBP 500,000. Fletchers Engineering installed the gas, water, steam and pipework services, and the project took three months.

Avingtrans Engineering Technology Group acquired Hayward Tyler, a maker of electric motors and pumps for energy and chemical industries, in an all-share transaction effective September 1, 2017. Hayward Tyler becomes a wholly-owned division of Avingtrans.

Sellafield Ltd awarded a direct contract worth GBP 700,000 to Romar Innovate Limited for PVC containment items used in production operations, including alpha containment activity.

Weedon Corrugated Products has invested in a Fosber dry end for its in-house corrugator to boost sheet board production.

Progroup subsidiary Prowell has applied for planning permission for a two-phase corrugated board plant at Lees Lane, Ellesmere Port, with first-phase investment around £120m backed by a EUR 75 million commitment.

Tri-Wall Limited acquired a 95.02% stake in Welsh Boxes and Engineering (Holding Company) Limited, parent of Swansea-based maker of heavy duty corrugated boxes and timber packaging.

Pottery maker Emma Bridgewater's Stoke-on-Trent factory has installed a BOGE C25F variable-speed compressor and DS50 refrigerant dryer, supplied and installed by BOGE distributor Aroplus (UK) to cut energy use and maintenance.

Weidmann Whiteley, a paper manufacturer in Pool-in-Wharfedale near Leeds, invested £275,000 in upgrading its paper presses and created four jobs. The upgrade helped it win a £2.5m North America contract, and it received £27,500 from the Leeds City Region LEP.

Voith won a contract worth around EUR 40 million from ENGIE to refurbish the first two of four units at the Ffestiniog Power Station in North Wales, with an option for two more. Work is due to start in 2017 and be completed by early 2020.

Aegg Creative Packaging is investing GBP 1 million in a new 60,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in the UK to make injection moulded food packaging. The site is planned to expand to 140,000 sq ft in a second phase, with production expected to start before the end of 2017.

Leeds manufacturer Meltog won a GBP 400,000 order for industrial recycling machinery from a new Saudi Arabian food processing and packaging customer. UK Export Finance and Lloyds Banking Group provided working capital support.

ISD Solutions completed a second coldstore facility for Kuehne + Nagel at its Greenford site in north west London under a £635,000 contract. The 3,860 sq m building uses Kingspan panels and operates at minus 25 degrees.

SPX Flow signed a contract with EDF Energy to supply 16 ASG and RRI nuclear pumps for the Hinkley Point C new build project in the UK. The pumps will be delivered via the ClydeUnion Pumps factory in Annecy, France.

Postal packaging company Blake has acquired an envelope manufacturing plant in Telford, UK, adding capacity for 300 million envelopes per year on top of its two billion annual output. The move aims to strengthen UK-based manufacturing.

CM Downton has won a five-year, GBP 15 million logistics contract to transport and store goods for Isover UK at its Runcorn factory, taking over from Bibby Distribution. Six Bibby staff transferred to CM Downton, which also took 20 Isover trailers.

Plastics supplier ActionPlas has invested over GBP 1 million in new premises, staff and machinery to support its growth plans.

ActionPlas, a Leeds-based plastics supplier, invested over £1 million in new machinery, a warehouse expansion of 4,000 sqm to 7,600 sqm, and staff. The investment includes two Haas milling centres and new CNC routing equipment.

Cepac is investing £2m to expand its corrugated packaging factory at Rawcliffe Bridge, East Yorkshire, with a new 45,000 sq ft production and warehousing facility under construction. The article is dated July 11, 2017.

Konings plans to submit a planning application for a GBP 35 million expansion of its Boxford, Suffolk factory, adding a cider canning line, a PET bottling line and warehousing. The project is expected to create up to 116 new jobs.

EDF Energy has awarded Ovivo UK Limited a GBP 27 million eight-year contract to design and supply the cooling water intake screening system for Hinkley Point C in Somerset. The drumscreens will be manufactured mainly in the UK.

ChargePoint Technology invested in a new 5-axis machine, automated washing plant and coordinate measuring machine at its Liverpool headquarters, as part of a wider £1 million investment to speed production of containment valves up to 350mm.

Vanden Recycling has opened a new plastics processing facility in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire.

AIM-listed pumps and motors group Hayward Tyler agreed an all-share merger with fellow AIM engineer Avingtrans, valuing Hayward at 51.6p per share, subject to shareholder approval of a scheme of arrangement.

Diamond Box, a UK corrugated packaging manufacturer in West Bromwich, secured an £8m finance package from Bibby Financial Services to buy a dual-print corrugated printing press.