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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Board24, part of the Logson Group, is investing a further £5m to extend its Preston sheet feeder operation by 4,000sqm, raising loading and storage capacity by 30% and adding a fourth material handling line.

Kirkcaldy-based Smith Anderson has agreed a three-year extension to supply paper bags to McDonald's, worth £35 million, following a competitive tender. The deal runs to at least 2020 and extends supply into Poland and central eastern Europe.

Progroup subsidiary Prowell plans a corrugated sheet mega plant in Ellesmere Port near Liverpool, UK, investing EUR 75 million. It will produce up to 235,000 tpy and is planned to start by Q3 2018.

Leicester-based CPS Flexible and Kirkby in Ashfield-based Mercury Packaging merged under a holding company, Quicksilver, creating a £16m flexible packaging group that will keep both brands. The deal was reported on 5 March 2017.

Private investment firm Bain Capital, through its Europe fund, is acquiring UK packaging company Petainer, a deal that runs alongside its purchase of Belgian preform maker Resilux and may see the businesses combined.

Printing and Packaging Co Ltd of Hinckley, Leicester has bought a Rapida 106 seven-colour double coater press from Koenig & Bauer to add capacity and coating options. The press is due to be installed at the end of March 2017.

Smurfit Kappa's Tannochside plant in Scotland has introduced C&T Channel Matrix's Corrugate creasing matrix on its high-speed bottling line. The plant produces packaging for distilleries, food producers and pharmaceutical customers.

Mondi Group bought UK-based Excelsior Technologies from funds managed by Endless and minority shareholders for a total consideration of GBP 33 million on a debt and cash-free basis. Excelsior operates plants in Deeside and Nelson and makes flexible food packaging.

CM Downton has extended its transport contract with DS Smith Plastics for two years after a competitive tender. Downton delivers up to 10 multi-drop loads of plastics packaging daily from the Gloucester plant to UK customers.

i2r Packaging Solutions opened a new warehouse at its Telford manufacturing facility after investing about £1.5m in 2016. Staff are expected to rise from 85 to 100 and the company plans to add aluminium and paper lines.

UK public buying body ESPO appointed Pack King Ltd and L&F Contractors under a single-lot framework worth £2.1m for packaging materials and pallet supply to its Grove Park facility in Leicester, running 16 January 2017 to 14 January 2018.

Japanese RFID company SATO Holdings acquired the remaining 66.7% stake in UK-based inline digital printing company DataLase, which makes laser coding and marking materials for packaging.

RPC Containers Blackburn developed a new, narrower 3.6L injection-moulded PET jar in a custom mould for Tangerine Confectionery's sweet range, reported November 28, 2016.

Kettering-based VP Packaging has acquired Rotherham-based bubble film company Envelopemaster for an undisclosed fee. The companies say the deal will secure jobs in Kettering and Rotherham.

Quadpack Industries and UK packaging provider Collcap Group merged to become a leading European maker and supplier of packaging for the beauty industry, retaining the Quadpack name. Collcap's Leek office becomes the centre of UK operations while Quadpack's Barcelona office stays as global headquarters.

Integrity Print has acquired Cardiff-based label maker Alliance Labels for an undisclosed fee. The deal was reported on 2016-11-16.

Smurfit Kappa UK, a subsidiary of Smurfit Kappa Group, agreed to acquire Saxon Packaging, a UK company that converts board into corrugated boxes and fitments. Financial terms were not disclosed.

UK creative services firm Key Production acquired Brighton-based packaging specialist Modo for an undisclosed fee. The deal extends Key Production's reach into the South of England, with no redundancies expected.

Smurfit Kappa UK announced its acquisition of Saxon Packaging, an independent converter of board into corrugated boxes based in Lowestoft, Norfolk, serving customers in Suffolk, East Anglia and the Home Counties.

Plastipak Packaging completed the acquisition of the business assets of Evolve Polymers Ltd. from Aurelius at its Hemswell Cliff site in the UK, which can process 6 to 9 billion PET bottles a year. The business began operating immediately under Plastipak's ownership.

Manuli Packaging was awarded a GBP 250,000 contract by Public Power Solutions to supply bale wrap for packaging solid recovered fuel at its Swindon facility. The award date was 2016-10-28 and it was published on 2016-11-22.