Skybox Packaging plans an 88,000 square-foot expansion of its Mansfield facility at 1275 Pollock Pkwy with a $3.3 million building investment, plus $2 million for machinery and $1 million for inventory. The project is expected to create 28 jobs, announced November 21, 2017.

Fort Smith's board unanimously approved tax incentive resolutions to help attract Silgan Plastic Food Containers to a planned 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility, which could create 150 jobs by its third year. The chamber said the project was not yet a done deal.

Graham Partners, a private investment firm, announced its acquisition of EasyPak LLC, a thermoformed packaging provider headquartered in Leominster, Massachusetts. Atlas Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor on the sale, and management retains a minority stake.

Synlait opened its blending and consumer packaging facility in Mangere, Auckland, with annual packaging capacity of 32,000 MT, doubling its canning capacity to 64,000 MT, after investing NZ$55 million in the acquired partially-completed site.

Italian packaging producer Sirap-Gema agreed to buy rigid plastic food packaging maker Kama Europe, trading as Pactiv, from Reynolds Group Holdings, with completion expected mid-January 2018. Kama Europe has a plant in Sedgefield employing 110.

WestRock confirmed an investment of more than US$125 million to build a large corrugated cardboard plant in Porto Feliz, São Paulo state, with works starting in 2017 and completion expected in Q2 2019.

Huhtamaki North America selected Miller Valentine Construction to renovate about 942,000 SF of the old Ford Motor Company transmission plant in Batavia, Ohio, adding 44 dock doors, two parking lots and a 25,000 SF office area.

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.

Berry Global Group announced a definitive agreement to acquire Clopay Plastic Products Co. Inc., a subsidiary of Griffon Corp., for $475 million in cash. Clopay is a global supplier of printed breathable films and elastic films for hygiene, healthcare, construction and industrial markets.

WestRock Company announced a $410 million investment to install a new 330-inch kraft linerboard machine at its Florence County, South Carolina mill. The machine will produce 710,000 tons annually and replace three older machines, with production expected in the first half of 2020.

TricorBraun, a St. Louis packaging company, acquired Taipak, a flexible packaging provider headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia. It is TricorBraun's first move into flexible packaging, and Taipak will be renamed Taipak, A TricorBraun Company.

Poland's CAN-PACK Group opened a beverage can plant in Helmond, Netherlands, with a total investment of over EUR 100 million, co-financed by BGK. The plant has two lines producing up to 2 billion cans per year.

Berry Global Group has agreed to acquire Clopay Plastic Products Company from Griffon Corporation for $475 million in cash, adding printed breathable films and elastic films with about 1,500 employees.

Aquapak's UK factory began manufacturing Hydropol plastic pellets in July 2017, with capacity for five production lines each producing up to 6,000 metric tonnes per year, all due to be operating by end of 2017.

Aquapak Polymers Ltd introduced Hydropol, a range of water-soluble, biodegradable, recyclable flexible plastics based on PVOH, available in the UK as pellets.

Pouch Partners AG, a subsidiary of Capri Sun Group, has acquired all shares of Italian flexible films provider Porta Imballaggi Flessibili S.p.A. The deal aims to strengthen Pouch Partners' position as a global pouch specialist.

Pact Group has bought two Reynolds companies in Asia, according to Plastics News. The article gives no further details on location, price or date beyond December 5, 2017.

Packaging Corporation of America plans a $150 million investment replacing a paper machine at its Boise Paper mill in Wallula, Washington, nearly doubling output to 400,000 tons per year of linerboard.

IMA Benhil installed the first Multipack 2000 butter wrapping machine at Belgian butter producer Agral S.A.

Huhtamaki is investing €11 million ($12.9 million) in a new manufacturing plant in Hämeenlinna, Finland to replace an aging facility. The plant will serve customers in Nordic and Baltic countries.

Canpack opened a new beverage can factory on the Maisdijk in Helmond in spring 2017, with about 40,000 square metres of floor space. Construction cost was said to be more than EUR 100 million.

SternMaid America installed a new double-head auger filler at its Aurora, IL facility, increasing can filling capacity for powders to 6,000 cans/hr. The investment, including peripheral components, was approximately $300,000.

Zhejiang Saifeng Machinery Technology Co., Ltd. officially opened its new factory in Jiashan, Zhejiang on November 12, 2017. The company, founded by the founder of Shanghai Safran Packaging Machinery, built the plant to expand production capacity.

Blackstone Group has reportedly agreed to acquire ShyaHsin Packaging (China) for about $800 million to $900 million, according to sources cited by Reuters, and is arranging about $600 million of loan financing. The report was dated November 10, 2017.

Greenpac Mill and Diamond Packaging have partnered with Covanta's Niagara Falls, New York waste-to-energy facility, which burns their nonrecyclable waste to produce steam piped back to the Greenpac linerboard mill.

Alpla is developing a 180,000-square-foot plant near Allentown, Pennsylvania, hiring 80 people to produce containers for food, household and cosmetic products.

Belgian food packaging and serviceware maker deSter is setting up a new production facility in Lima, Ohio, to produce service items for the foodservice and travel industry closer to its US customers.

Poste Italiane S.p.A. awarded a framework contract worth EUR 11,793,010 to Ondapack S.r.l. for supplying forms, labels, boxes and cardboard. The award was published on November 7, 2017.

Wrapping manufacturer The Design Group is investing £1 million in new machinery and up to 10 new jobs at its Penallta Industrial Estate base near Ystrad Mynach, Wales, to diversify into high-end paper twist bags.

Citic Capital agreed to buy French packaging company Axilone from Oaktree Capital Management, announced on November 6, 2017. Banks have lined up about €420m of leveraged loans to finance the buyout, with Axilone's EBITDA around €55m.

The Dow Chemical Company and Karlville Development Group signed a collaboration agreement to promote Dow's PacXpert flexible packaging technology. Karlville will supply pouch making, spout inserting and filling and capping machinery for North American users.

FROMM Group, a Swiss specialist in transport packaging solutions, acquired 70% of the shares of Finnish wrapping machine manufacturer Octomeca OY.

Oriental Containers will sell a 51 percent stake in Oricon Packaging to Pelliconi & C.S.P.A. for about 4.19 billion rupees under a business transfer agreement signed by Oricon Enterprises.

The Dow Chemical Company and Karlville Development Group signed a collaboration agreement to promote Dow's PacXpert flexible packaging technology. Karlville will supply pouch making, spout inserting and filling and capping machinery for North American users.

Pro-Gest Group completed the expansion of its Trevikart plant in Modugno, doubling the surface area from 13,000 to 30,000 square meters with a EUR 20 million investment. A new production line for agro-industrial packaging is being installed and will be operational by end of 2017.

Gebo Cermex, part of the Sidel Group, signed a supply agreement with KUKA AG to extend its portfolio of robotic solutions for packaging line engineering and material handling.

Tapì Group completed the acquisition of Tapì Argentina, moving from a minority stake to 90% ownership, with the remaining 10% held by CEO Mariano Paz. The Argentine plant will serve demand across South America.

WestRock has entered into agreements to acquire substantially all of the assets of Plymouth Packaging, a corrugated packaging company known for its Box on Demand systems. The deal also includes Plymouth's equity stake in Panotec and its US and Canada distribution rights.

Virospack has invested in two new laser-technology machines for its glass section in Barcelona, increasing pipette production capacity from 52 million to over 70 million units per year. Six new lines are planned for a new production unit.

Corning announced an investment in Corning Valor Glass that will create 185 new jobs and support over 380 jobs overall at its Innovation Support Center in Big Flats and R&D facility at Sullivan Park in Erwin, New York. The investment is part of a previously announced $500 million plan to create 1,000 U.S. jobs.

TC Transcontinental acquired Montréal-based flexible packaging converter Les Industries Flexipak Inc., which employs 55 people, extending its packaging footprint to Eastern Canada.

Auer Packaging GmbH is adding injection molding capacity at its Amerang, Germany site, with a second hall running 14 machines since 2016 and a third hall planned to reach 35 machines. The company produces about 35 million plastic containers per year.

Owens-Illinois will build a fifth glass furnace at its Nava plant in northeastern Mexico to supply beer bottles to Constellation's adjacent brewery, an expansion estimated at about $140 million, financed equally by both partners.

Owens-Illinois extended its 50-50 joint venture with Constellation Brands in Mexico by 10 years, continuing it until 2034, as reported on 1 November 2017.

Constantia Flexibles completed the sale of its labels division to Multi-Color Corp. for an enterprise value of about EUR 1.15 billion (approximately USD 1.3 billion), with Constantia receiving about EUR 830 million in cash and keeping a 16.6% stake in Multi-Color.

Cascades Inc. announced a $21-million investment in its Cascades Inopak (Drummondville) and Plastiques Cascades (Kingsey Falls) plants to acquire equipment for increased production of food packaging, primarily for the fresh protein market, creating over 10 new jobs.

Dewitt Barrels Inc and DBI Recycling were sold to Industrial Container Services of Maitland, Florida, which plans to merge the Marne, Michigan company with an Illinois subsidiary. The founding family is retiring, and terms were not disclosed.

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.

Reynolds Group agreed to sell its SIG Combibloc carton packaging business to Onex Corporation for up to €3.75 billion, with €3.575 billion payable at closing and up to €175 million based on 2015 and 2016 performance. The deal was expected to close in the first quarter of 2015.

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.