Roots Systems bought the 95,000 sq ft Spinnaker Works office and manufacturing facility in Gloucester, UK, to consolidate its operations from Stonehouse. The investment is said to exceed £10 million, funded from group cash resources.

VPK UK and Ireland plans to close its corrugated packaging site in Leeds, UK, by 29 August 2025, affecting 59 employees. Operations will move to other VPK locations and consultation with unions has begun.

Paper and board maker April International appointed Scalderhurst Ltd as its sole distributor for the UK and Ireland, covering GC1 and GC2 folding box boards, art boards and cup stock boards. The announcement was made on 5 February 2025.

Schumacher Packaging Birmingham began full commercial digital production on a Koenig & Bauer Durst Delta SPC 130 single-pass press, the first six-colour FlexLine Eco+ installation in the UK. The installation is part of a €30 million investment that also upgrades its Birmingham plant and two nearby warehouses.

VPK UK & Ireland plans to close its Leeds corrugated packaging site by 29 August 2025, affecting 59 employees. Operations will move to other VPK locations.

National Gas Transmission awarded a contract for design and build of new gas-compression installations at its ST Fergus Terminal site, to meet Medium Combustion Plant Directive compliance by 2030. The contract notice was published on 23 January 2025.

Dutypoint Ltd of Gloucester, UK, joined Stuart Turner, Mikrofill and AGM on 13 January 2025 to create a scale player in residential and commercial water pump and pressurisation.

Macfarlane Group acquired Scotland-based protective packaging maker Pitreavie Group for a maximum cash consideration of £18m, including an earn-out of up to £4m over two years, financed from its existing bank facility.

Irish water pumping group EPS Group announced the acquisition of Robert Craig & Sons of Lisburn, a 140-year-old engineering firm specialising in niche industrial pumps and fuel pumping equipment.

Baker Hughes won an order from Saipem to supply three electric-driven CO2 centrifugal compressor trains and a Lufkin Gears gearbox for Eni's Liverpool Bay carbon capture and storage project. The compressors will be installed at Saipem's converted facility at Point of Ayr in north Wales.

ESPO published a contract award notice for its packaging materials and pallet supply framework, with Lot 1 awarded to three suppliers. The notice confirms the awards made in the same procurement.

ESPO, a UK central purchasing body, appointed four suppliers to a packaging materials and pallet supply and collection framework worth £2,000,000, with a contract period from November 2024 to August 2026.

VPK Group revealed plans in early 2025 to close its Leeds facility on August 29, 2025, citing concerns over the plant's long-term commercial viability.

UK aluminium foil tray maker i2r Packaging Solutions has secured an exclusive sole supply agreement to supply Greencore with smoothwall aluminium products and wrinklewall containers, expanding an existing relationship.

Dutch company Nova Paper, affiliated with Turkey's Eren Holdings, acquired 100% of Wolverhampton-based Onboard Corrugated from Klingele Paper and Packaging Group and Paul Jundu. Onboard is completing a second BHS corrugator that will raise capacity to 250 million square metres a year.

McLaren Packaging is forming a 50/50 joint venture called McLaren Corrugate Limited with VPK Packaging UK & Ireland, combining its Port Glasgow corrugate plant with VPK's East Kilbride site to serve the Scottish corrugated market.

Spanish carton printing group Alzamora has acquired Offset Print & Packaging of Aylesford, near Maidstone, UK. The combined businesses will have 300 staff. The deal value was not disclosed.

bp Ventures and EIP co-led a $25 million (EUR 23 million) Series C funding round for Oxford Flow, a UK valve technology company without mechanical drive train, to scale up operations.

2M Group of Companies signed a multi-year commercial supply agreement with Transcend Packaging to deploy Xampla's plastic-free Morro coating on paperboard packaging across the UK, manufactured at 2M's Milton Keynes facility, announced 5 December 2024.

National Gas Transmission has awarded a contract for design and build of new gas-compression installations at its Wormington Compressor Station, to meet medium combustion plant rules by 2030. The contractor and value are not named in the notice.

Italian pump manufacturer Udor has acquired 85% of the capital of Hughes Pumps Limited, which makes high and very high pressure pumps and water jetting equipment at a West Sussex facility.

Leidos Supply issued a prior information notice for a framework supplying packaging and soft consumables to the UK Ministry of Defence, estimated at £29 million to £73 million over up to four years from 2026. The notice is for market research only and is not a formal tender.

McLaren Packaging and VPK UK and Ireland launched a 50/50 joint venture, McLaren Corrugate Limited, combining McLaren's Port Glasgow corrugated plant with VPK's East Kilbride site. McLaren will hold operational management control.

McLaren Packaging and VPK UK & Ireland agreed to form a 50/50 joint venture, McLaren Corrugate Limited, combining McLaren's Port Glasgow corrugate plant with VPK's East Kilbride site to serve the Scottish corrugated market.

Biffa has been awarded a £3 million three-year contract to collect and manage about 15,000 tonnes of waste from DS Smith sites across the UK, with zero waste sent to landfill.

Italian packaging group Carton Pack has acquired Clifton Packaging Group, a Leicester-based maker of flexible food and drink packaging, backed by private equity firm A&M Capital Europe.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners announced a planned £42.3m investment in a new 38-metre automated storage and retrieval system warehouse at its Wakefield site, adding 29,500 pallets of capacity. The build will take two and a half years.

Northern Ireland Water published a contract award for framework IF030 covering supply, installation and maintenance of compressors, blowers and diffusers across three lots. The framework ceiling is £15,500,000 over up to seven years including extensions.

Coveris is investing in its Winsford, Cheshire polyethylene extrusion site, adding a nine-layer blown EVOH barrier film line, a cast stretch film line and a 5,000-pallet warehouse. The cast line is set to start production in December 2024 and the warehouse is expected to be fully operational by the end of Q1 2025.

BEL Valves has designed, manufactured and installed 55 high integrity valves on the central processing facility of the ETAP project in the Central North Sea for a subsea tieback to a world-leading energy supplier.

EnerMech won a multi-million-pound minimum five-year contract to manage flexible hose assembly and small bore tubing services for a major E&P operator's UK offshore assets. The operator is not named.

Inox India won its first liquid air energy storage order from Highview Power, to supply five 690 kl cryogenic tanks for the Carrington facility in Manchester, UK.

Palm Group has completed the acquisition of 100% of John Hargreaves (Collyhurst & Stalybridge) Ltd, a corrugated products producer in Stalybridge near Manchester, in October 2024.

Northern Gas Networks awarded a contract to UK supplier Goodwin for axial control valves, replacing its historical single source for urgent replacement needs.

Aquapak Polymers, Maxim and N Brown announced a collaboration under which N Brown begins rolling out Hydropol-based garment bags for its own-label products. N Brown expects plastic use to fall by 44% once rollout is complete.

Peak Packaging UK signed a supply agreement to provide bag-in-box packaging to Britvic Soft Drinks for its Leeds filling site, starting in 2025.

Fluiconnecto UK Ltd, part of the Manuli Ryco group, announced the acquisition of GB Hoses Limited, a UK provider of 24/7 emergency mobile hose replacement and a trade counter in Greater Manchester. The announcement was made on 30 October 2024.

United Utilities Water awarded the PRO004595 framework contract for pressure management valves and associated spare parts to three suppliers, published 30 October 2024. The valves support new investment and replacement of existing pressure management valves.

Shawton Energy is installing a fully funded rooftop solar system with 1,042 panels on Duo UK's 44,000 sq ft warehouse in Manchester, expected to generate 504,070 kWh annually.

2M Group of Companies has signed a multi-year commercial supply agreement with Transcend Packaging to supply its plastic-free Morro Coating for paper board packaging across the UK. The coating will be manufactured at scale at 2M's Milton Keynes facility under its Sustainable Packaging Technologies venture.

UK corrugated polypropylene manufacturer Twinplast has appointed Andrew Hawksley as its new Financial Director to support its growth strategy. He has 25 years of senior finance experience, including in the manufacturing sector.

Huhtamäki Oyj is expanding its fiber lid production capacity at its Lurgan site in Northern Ireland. The article provides few details beyond the headline.

2M Group of Companies signed a multi-year commercial supply agreement with Transcend Packaging to supply Xampla's plastic-free Morro Coating across the UK. The coating will be manufactured at scale at 2M's Milton Keynes facility under its Sustainable Packaging Technologies venture.

UK water management provider Dutypoint has acquired Flowtech Water Solutions, a designer and manufacturer of water booster sets. The deal strengthens Dutypoint's water solutions offering in the UK market.

EPS Group has acquired Flowmech, a Leicester-based manufacturer and distributor of water, wastewater and pumping products including booster sets and pressurisation units. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Atlas Copco Group has acquired Kinder-Janes Engineers Ltd, an industrial pump distributor headquartered in St. Albans, UK, which has 20 employees and 2023 revenues of about GBP 12.5 million. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Coveris is investing £5 million in its St Neots packaging facility in Cambridgeshire, UK, to scale up recyclable food-to-go packaging production. The expansion starts in October 2024 and is due for completion in Q1 2025.

VPK Group acquired a minority stake of about 28% in Fencor Packaging Group, which wholly owns the Cambridgeshire corrugated sheet plant Manor Packaging. Fencor announced the deal on 26 September 2024.

Coveris announced a £5 million investment to triple the production space of its St Neots, Cambridgeshire, food-to-go packaging site from 1,000 to 3,158 square metres. The project starts this month and is expected to complete in Q1 2025.

Easypack POP/Displays Group, a maker of temporary point-of-sale displays, was acquired by Easypack Holdings from Fencor Packaging Group on 30 August 2024 as the businesses were demerged. Fencor announced the transaction on 26 September 2024.