RH Fibreboard, part of Goonvean Group, acquired Smart Packaging, a corrugated packaging supplier with 23 employees near Bristol. Smart will continue as a wholly owned subsidiary under existing management.

UK packaging company Mondi reached an agreement in principle on a potential all-share offer for rival DS Smith valued at £5.14 billion, with Mondi shareholders owning 54% of the combined group.

Earthshot Prize winner Notpla signed a contract to supply an expected 75 million seaweed-based food packaging items to caterer Levy over three years for use in more than 50 UK sports venues.

UK logistics firm Europa Warehouse signed a contract to provide 3PL storage, fulfilment and transport from its Birmingham site to packaging distributor Paramount Global's European business.

Contract manufacturer PoppyPac acquired a new 103,000 sq ft manufacturing site near its Hastings, East Sussex facility, investing over £500,000. The site will add filling lines, warehousing and fulfilment services.

ABB won an order from Portsmouth International Port to supply a shore connection system for ferries and cruise ships under the port's Sea Change project. The system is due for installation in Q4 2024 and operation by Q2 2025.

Ablebox signed a multi-phase supply project with Emmepi Group, via its UK agent GTS Europe, for a materials handling solution at the Sherborne facility; the first phase is about GBP 450,000.

Ablebox Ltd has acquired a 52,000 sq ft facility in Sherborne as its third site and is investing a GBP 6 million project, installing a rotary die-cutter and converting lines.

Menzies Distribution Solutions secured a three-year extension of its UK distribution contract with Saica Group, managing transport at Saica's Carrington facility covering around 450 loads per week.

Logson Group, headquartered in Coalville, acquired East Sussex-based corrugated packaging manufacturer Challenge Packaging Ltd, which operates from a 10,000 sq m site near Hailsham.

NPP Packaging Systems Holdings completed its acquisition of Active Packaging Holdings NI Limited on 31 January 2024, with BHSM LLP advising.

Nuclear Waste Services has awarded contracts under a four-lot framework for waste containers, UN drums, soft sided packages and NOVAPAK spares, with a notional ceiling of £14.7 million over four years.

Southern Water Services awarded Find a Tender project prj_2203 for valves and actuators to five winners, including AVK UK, Glenfield Invicta, HVL Solutions, Auma Actuators and Rotork UK. Total value was not stated and the contract runs 47 months.

McLaren Packaging has acquired Bathgate-based protective packaging maker Glenhaze Ltd for an undisclosed sum. The Bathgate premises and all 25 employees are being retained.

Kellanova invested £86m in new technology to produce a 90% paper-based Pringles tube, sold first exclusively in Tesco and One Stop stores in the UK from January 2024 and rolling out to other supermarkets later in 2024.

UK-based premium packaging provider CJK Packaging acquired eco-friendly food packaging and partyware company WF Denny to expand its premium and sustainable product range. The financial terms were not disclosed and the deal was reported on January 8, 2024.

Spanish packaging group Saica, through its UK subsidiary Saica Pack, lodged a full planning application for a 485,000 sq ft corrugated fibreboard factory on a 25-acre site at Invest NI's Carnbane Industrial Estate in Newry. The investment is expected to be in the tens of millions and will relocate its Warrenpoint operation.

The Science and Technology Facilities Council awarded EagleBurgmann Industries UK a supply contract for a hydrogen top-up compressor and a process gas compressor, valued at 88,015 with work from January to August 2024. The award was dated 14 December 2023.

A GE Vernova-led consortium with MYTILINEOS was awarded a GBP 1 billion contract by National Grid Electricity Transmission and SP Transmission to supply and construct two HVDC converter stations for the Eastern Green Link 1 subsea link in the UK.

Van Genechten Packaging has acquired 100% of its UK joint venture with CartonCare Group, a printed folding carton maker based in Northern Ireland with a combined turnover of EUR 30 million. The deal brings VGP to 12 sites in 9 countries.

PetrolValves and its subsidiary VSI Controls were awarded a contract to supply severe service control valves, including a turbine bypass system and pressure reducing and desuperheating system, for a new energy recovery waste-to-energy plant in North London.

Trebor Developments reached practical completion on Crown Packaging's £150 million, 632,000 sq ft beverage can plant at the former Mars Petcare site in Woodston, Peterborough, which will employ at least 280 people. Crown started production at the site as construction finished.

Score Group won a new valve management contract from INEOS FPS covering the Forties pipeline system and related assets, including the Unity Riser platform and onshore facilities, with work managed from Cruden Bay, Scotland.

France-based Autajon Group acquired Simply Cartons, a folding carton maker with three sites in Nottingham, UK. The company will be renamed Autajon Packaging Simply Cartons, and its management team stays in place.

Score Group was awarded a valve management contract by INEOS FPS covering the Forties Pipeline System and associated assets, including valve supply, repair, offshore and on-site services. The work is managed from Score's Cowdenbeath facility in Scotland.

Avingtrans subsidiary Hayward Tyler Fluid Handling acquired certain assets of Slack & Parr from administration, plus its US and Asian subsidiaries, for a total consideration of GBP 4.9 million.

Grundfos acquired Metasphere, a UK provider of telemetry and analytics for water networks, from XPV Water Partners. Metasphere offers the ART Sewer solution for preventing sewer overflows.

Prysmian, in consortium with Siemens, won a record contract worth about €800 million to build the Western HVDC submarine interconnector between Scotland and England for NGET/SPT Upgrades Ltd. The total project value is about €1.1 billion, with commissioning scheduled for late 2015.

SCG Packaging completed a 100% stake acquisition of UK packaging firm Law Print & Packaging for GBP 10.68 million and an 85% stake in Italian medical supply firm Bicappa Lab for EUR 3.23 million.

VPK Group reached an agreement to acquire a minority share in Ribble, a UK corrugated cardboard company specialising in fanfold based in Oldham, Lancashire. The deal supports VPK's vertically integrated packaging model across Europe.

Harland & Wolff Group secured a GBP 61 million base contract from Cenovus Energy to carry out the mid-life upgrade of the SeaRose FPSO at its Belfast Yard, with the vessel due to arrive in early 2024.

German carton and boxes specialist Carton Group acquired London-based luxury packaging company Wrapology for an undisclosed fee.

Score Group was awarded a new valve management contract by INEOS FPS covering valve supply, repair, offshore and on-site services, inventory management and engineering support for the Forties Pipeline System and associated assets.

Broadland Drinks signed a contract with Frugalpac and Journey's End to fill and distribute Interpunkt wines in Frugal paper bottles, making it the largest UK filler of Frugal Bottles. Journey's End will expand the bottles into the UK and beyond.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners announced a €35 million investment in a new high-speed canning line at its Wakefield site, capable of 2,000 cans per minute and due to be operational in 2024. The line will create 28 roles.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners announced a £31 million investment at its Wakefield, West Yorkshire plant to install a new canning line with 2,000 cans per minute capacity, expected to start production in 2024.

TechnipFMC was awarded a large integrated EPCI contract by Equinor for the Rosebank project west of the Shetland Isles in the UK, covering subsea production systems, pipe and umbilicals. TechnipFMC committed about $500 million of the award to local value creation.

T.G. Nuttall Packaging Ltd signed a sales contract with GTS Europe for a two-colour Weipong Venus 820 casemaker, to be installed at its Manchester site in the second quarter of 2024.

Northern Ireland's Procurement and Logistics Service awarded a corrugated boxes supply contract to Diamond Corrugated Cases Limited for £860,005 (about €998,369), with three bids received.

Fanuc UK worked with London-based Recycleye to deploy AI vision with Fanuc LR Mate robots for sorting dry mixed recyclables, reporting up to 12% higher sorting accuracy and up to 10% higher line output.

Fischer Panda UK secured its largest contract, worth over GBP 10 million, from a global aerospace and defence company to fit generator systems to the British Army's AJAX fighting vehicles.

Sellafield Limited awarded Induchem UK a contract worth £1,413,544 for three XOMOX cartridge valves, with the award notice published on September 8, 2023.

Jayplas will develop a plastic reprocessing facility at the former Toyoda Gosei factory in Swansea, capable of processing at least 100,000 tonnes of plastics a year. The £45 million investment will create over 100 jobs and is being developed in three phases.

Japanese pump maker Tsurumi became majority shareholder of British distributor Obart in Maidstone, Kent, which now trades as Tsurumi Pumps UK from 1 September 2023. The move gives Tsurumi six sales companies in Europe.

Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) awarded a framework agreement for manufacturing and installing full pipe systems on vessels to three winners: Malakoff Limited, Hydrasun Limited and HB Hydraulics. The framework maximum value is €23,393,728.

Max Fame Group opened its first UK base in Trafford, Greater Manchester, leasing a 21,500 sq ft logistics building at Carrington Gateway with an initial £1m capital investment expected to create 100 jobs within three years.

Avingtrans plc has acquired Derby-based pump manufacturer Slack & Parr for a total consideration of £2.6 million after it entered administration. The deal will save 100 skilled jobs across its facilities in Kegworth, the USA and Asia.

Protective packaging company Glenhaze, based in Bathgate, Scotland, was acquired by McLaren Packaging in September 2023, according to a company profile page.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority cleared the anticipated joint venture by Cameco and Brookfield to acquire Westinghouse Electric Company, after a phase 1 merger inquiry launched in September 2023.

Geothermal Engineering Ltd. awarded Exergy International a turnkey EPC contract for a 3 MWe gross Organic Rankine Cycle power plant at the United Downs site near Redruth, Cornwall, with commissioning expected by late 2024.