Stone Canyon Industries signed a definitive agreement to buy Mauser Group N.V., a rigid industrial packaging maker, from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in an all-cash deal valued at $2.3 billion. Mauser has 4,500 employees and 111 manufacturing facilities across 18 countries.

Santa Monica doubled the size of its Rancho plant to move into skin-pack production.

The Office of Government Procurement in Ireland published a request for tender (FCT034C) for the supply and delivery of disposable polypropylene and aluminium meal containers, sealing films, tray sealing machines and polystyrene food boxes, with contract start 10 March 2017 and no value specified.

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.

Ball is producing cans for selected craft beer expressions of Norwegian brewer Lervig Aktiebryggeri, extending its cooperation with craft brewers in Norway.

Henkel opened exclusive negotiations with GCP Applied Technologies to acquire Darex Packaging Technologies, a Cambridge, Massachusetts maker of sealants and coatings for metal packaging, for USD 1.05 billion in cash. Darex has about 700 employees at 20 sites.

Stora Enso is investing EUR 28 million at its Heinola Fluting Mill in Finland to improve quality and add 15,000 tonnes of AvantFlute SC capacity. Completion is scheduled for the second quarter of 2018.

Dow Chemical Co. agreed to sell its global Ethylene Acrylic Acid copolymers and ionomers business to SK Global Chemical Co., including production assets in Freeport, Texas and Tarragona, Spain, as part of regulatory approval for the Dow-DuPont merger.

G's Growers Ltd ordered seven custom-designed Fuji Alpha VII FW3710BS/B back seal flow-wrappers from Paramount Packaging Systems Ltd for packing celery on mobile field harvesting rigs.

SK Innovation, through its subsidiary SK Global Chemical, acquired Dow Chemical's ethylene acrylic acid (EAA) business for USD 370 million. The deal includes production facilities in Freeport, Texas, and Tarragona, Spain, along with technology and trademarks.

Stora Enso is investing 70 million euros in a new polyethylene extrusion coating plant and an automated roll warehouse at its Imatra mills in Finland. The roll handling system was ordered from Pesmel, with commissioning expected in early Q4 2017.

R.A JONES and VOLPAK entered into a partnership with PLAN Automation, Inc. as of February 1, 2017, to promote their packaging machinery in Canada. PLAN Automation will act as the main agent for R.A JONES' end-of-line automation portfolio and VOLPAK's horizontal form-fill-seal machines.

Dematek has received an order for six overhead cranes, including a 150-ton crane with 29-meter span, for the new KM7 cartonboard machine at Gruvön mill in Sweden, part of a SEK 5.7 billion project.

The Wise private equity fund acquired Tapì Group, an Italian maker of design closures for the packaging industry, under an investment plan to expand internationally and boost R&D. The group has factories in Italy, Mexico and Argentina and turns over about 40 million euros.

KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation completed the acquisition of assets of Associated Packaging, Inc. from Scott Dorris and Brad Dorris on February 1, 2017. No purchase price was given in the article.

CM Downton 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.

Multivac, the German packaging machine manufacturer, began construction of a new plant in the state industrial zone in Bozhurishte, Bulgaria. The facility will include production, warehouse, logistics, training center, and offices, with an investment of 37 million BGN over three years.

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.

Response Packaging, a returnable packaging manufacturer, is expanding its existing facility at 1698 Perimeter Road in Greenville, South Carolina, with $5 million of new capital investment and 100 new jobs.

PAC Machinery completed plans to relocate its Converting Technology plant to a 72,000-square-foot facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, doubling manufacturing capacity. The move will create new jobs in customer service, sales, engineering, and manufacturing.

Columbia/Okura formed a strategic alliance with Statec Binder to provide North American producers with end-to-end automated bag line solutions, combining robotic palletizing and bagging technologies.

Cleveland Steel Container Corporation acquired privately held U.S. Coexcell, Inc. of Maumee, Ohio, a maker of multi-layer plastic drum packaging, in a transaction for which P&M Corporate Finance was exclusive financial advisor.

Mondi Group approved a €470 million investment to modernise and expand the Steti mill in the Czech Republic. The project includes a new recovery boiler, rebuilt fibre lines, debottlenecking of paper machines, and a new 90,000 tonnes per annum machine glazed kraft paper machine.

Sonoco Products will invest about $20 million in a new packaging center in Fairburn, Fulton County, Georgia, creating 130 full-time and 465 part-time jobs to support Duracell's North American battery packaging operation.

Kruger is investing C$250 million with Investissements Québec to convert its Trois-Rivières newsprint mill to make lightweight cardboard packaging, starting production May 7, and plans to hire about 100 workers within five years.

PTT Global Chemical's subsidiary Solution Creation Company agreed a joint venture with SP Petpack, taking a 25% share in SP Petpack Inter Group (Thai) for about Bt50 million to build a packaging factory in Myanmar.

Crown Paper Group's Montebello Container installed an automated dry end at its La Mirada sheet feeder plant plus conveyors, unitizers and wet-end upgrades, and improved safety and waste at Pico Rivera and Santa Fe Springs. Montebello increased production more than 20 percent in 2016.

Crown Paper Group promoted Anthony Salcido to chairman and Larry Vas to president of Montebello Container Corporation, a Southern California corrugated sheet producer it acquired in 2015.

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.

Technimark opened the Donald F. Wellington Innovation Center, a nearly 30,000 sq. ft. facility at its Asheboro, N.C. campus, consolidating design and engineering staff for injection-molded packaging and components.

WestRock agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of Multi Packaging Solutions (MPS) for $18.00 per share in cash plus about $873 million of net debt, a total enterprise value of $2.28 billion. The deal was announced on January 24, 2017.

Funding company Actera Group acquired a majority stake in Korozo, a Turkish packaging firm with nine factories in Istanbul and Izmir, according to media reports. The deal awaits Competition Authority approval.

Packaging manufacturer Linpac will supply printed film base trays with anti-fog lids to Leroy for its Mercadona sushi range.

Silgan Holdings agreed to buy WestRock's specialty closures and dispensing business for about $1 billion, a purchase that includes 13 plants.

South Atlantic Packaging has acquired ProStar Packaging in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, enhancing its presence in the food and beverage packaging arena.

Penza company Decor Trade, working with Hubei Jingshan Light Industrial Machinery, is expanding corrugated cardboard production under a project worth over 150 million rubles that began in 2015. The expansion targets a sevenfold increase in output to 7 million square metres per month.

Synerlink, a supplier of packaging technology, acquired Sogameca, a manufacturer of precision machines and cutting tool technology based in Le Mans, France.

Linhardt GmbH & Co. KG of Viechtach is building its first laminate tube plant in Pausa in the Vogtland, Germany, investing EUR 20 million in a standalone factory beside its existing aluminium tube plant.

Bashundhara Group signed an agreement with Valmet to establish a packaging paper manufacturing facility in Bashundhara Special Economic Zone, Keraniganj, Bangladesh. The project will cost around Tk 4,000 Crore and create 10,000 jobs, with production capacity of 2,000 tonnes of pulp and board per day.

El Paso Paper Box has invested $7 million in a new seven-color KBA Rapida 106 sheetfed perfector press with full inline UV coating, delivered in late summer 2016 and fully operational in early October 2016, at its 105,000 sq ft facility in Texas.

Berry Plastics has completed its acquisition of AEP Industries, expanding its product offerings and production capacity in its Engineered Materials Division. Berry issued 6.5 million shares and paid $297m in cash, and eliminated $164m of AEP's debt.

Nexgen Packaging agreed to be the exclusive global provider of label and packaging products for retailer Chico's FAS, and the two companies will use Nexgen's software platform to manage ordering and delivery. The announcement was made on January 18, 2017.

Colorado Springs-based Packaging Express has a new 30,000 square foot plant in Denver to make custom corrugated boxes for customers on the northern side of Colorado.

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.

German packaging company Schumacher Packaging has completed a further extension of its factory in Krępice, Poland, reported on 14 January 2017.

Uhlmann Pac-Systeme & Co has acquired a controlling interest in Cremer Speciaalmachines, a Lisse-based maker of pharmaceutical product counting machines with about 140 employees, effective 1 January 2017.

Packsize International will expand its Utah operations, adding up to 354 jobs over seven years and an expected $9.2 million in capital investment, with the company positioning Utah as its global base.

JSC POZiS, through its tender organiser in Zelenodolsk, Tatarstan, placed a single-supplier purchase for corrugated cardboard packaging for 2017 deliveries with NP Naberezhnochelninsky KBK, valued at 49,460,912 rubles.

Nordson Corp. acquired Plas-Pak Industries Inc., a manufacturer of injection molded, single-use plastic dispensing and packaging products.

Shurtape Technologies LLC acquired Syntac Coated Products LLC. The combined portfolio includes cloth, duct, masking, paper, packaging, foil, film, double-coated and transfer tapes.