Latour Capital acquired a majority stake in Omni-Pac Group, an ecological moulded fibre packaging maker with over 600 employees at sites in the UK, France and Germany, from Motion Equity Partners, with management reinvesting.

SIG completed the acquisition of the remaining 50% of its Middle East and Africa joint venture, SIG Combibloc Obeikan, from Obeikan Investment Group. The business is fully consolidated from end-February 2021.

International Paper acquired the Molded Fiber division of Berkley International, Berkley MF LLC, which operates a molded fiber plant near Reno, Nevada. The purchase price was undisclosed.

Folding carton maker Malnove is spending $7.4 million to upgrade a production line and grow capacity at its Jacksonville plant, creating 10 new advanced manufacturing jobs and retaining 182.

Arihant Technopack, a flexible packaging converter in Sonipat, Haryana, has installed a Bobst Nova RS 5003 rotogravure press to increase its gravure printing capacity.

The Competition Commission of India approved PGP Glass Private Limited's acquisition of Piramal Glass Private Limited's glass packaging and decoration business, along with shares in certain subsidiaries and Vivid Glass Trading FZCO and Unzapak Private Limited business divisions.

Rootree, a Burlington, Ontario flexible packaging converter, is adding a second HP Indigo 20000 Digital Press to double its print capacity for fully compostable flexible packaging.

Ardagh Group agreed to combine its metal packaging business, Ardagh Metal Packaging, with special purpose acquisition company Gores Holdings V, with the new company to list on the NYSE under AMBP. Ardagh will keep about 80% and receive up to $3.4 billion in cash.

POLIFILM EXTRUSION GmbH acquired 100% of SAXA Packaging GmbH, which operates a blown film plant in Neukirchen/Pleiße, Germany. The deal adds broad and barrier films to POLIFILM's portfolio. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Duravant, a provider of engineered equipment and automation solutions, has acquired Votech, a manufacturer of bag filling machines and palletising technology based in the Netherlands.

UFlex Limited announced it will double production capacity at its Asepto aseptic liquid packaging plant in Sanand, India, from 3.5 billion to 7 billion packs per annum, by investing in a second Heidelberg Intro web printing line.

BG Container Glass (BGC) in Thailand has approved an M&A investment plan covering two companies that make plastic films, caps, PET bottles, preforms and corrugated boxes, as part of a strategy to double revenue from 10,000 to 25,000 million baht by 2025. The plan will go to the annual shareholders meeting.

Mill Rock Packaging Partners, backed by Mill Rock Capital, has acquired All Packaging Company, a custom paperboard packaging manufacturer with facilities in Utah and Colorado. Terms were not disclosed.

Berlin Packaging announced the acquisition of French glass and metal packaging companies Sodis-Uhart and Audoubert, adding more than 9,000 square meters of warehouse space in southern France. It is Berlin Packaging's eleventh European acquisition since 2016.

Harwood Private Equity completed a management buyout of UK pharmaceutical and healthcare packaging maker Medica Packaging from Sullivan Street Partners. Managing director Gerard Harford and finance director Mark Stokes led the buyout.

Vishakha Polyfab's joint venture PT Flextech Packaging with Wilmar started up a flexible packaging plant in Indonesia in January 2021, with full commissioning expected by the end of February 2021. The plant has an initial capacity of 13,500 metric tons.

Baysek Machines sold a C-170 automatic die cutter to The Corrugated Case Company in Chesterfield, UK. The machine will be installed in Spring 2021.

Revolution acquired Jadcore, LLC, a Terre Haute, Indiana-based manufacturer of post-industrial recycled resin and plastic products.

KAP AG announced the acquisition of an 80% stake in AerO Coated Fabrics B.V., a Dutch manufacturer of thermoplastic composite materials for niche markets such as CIPP liners and agricultural applications. The stake will be increased to 100%.

Esterpet, set up by Esterform management, secured £9m of asset finance from Shawbrook Bank to buy two Starlinger rPET production lines at Sherburn-in-Elmet, Leeds, each capable of over 13,000 tonnes a year.

JobsOhio awarded Burrows a $400,000 grant to support investment in new machinery, equipment and infrastructure at its food-packaging manufacturing plants in Mount Vernon and Franklin, Ohio.

Roslavl Glass Factory, the largest enterprise in the Smolensk region, modernized one of its two glass-melting furnaces and plans to upgrade the second. The plant produces 650,000 glass bottles and jars per day and employs 860 people.

Packaging Technologies & Inspection LLC awarded its Waldner agency business to WNA Packaging Technologies LLC, which will operate under the Waldner North America brand for sales, service and new product development.

Nordmeccanica Group will supply Wipak UK with a combi laminator, part of a £5 million investment at Wipak's Welshpool factory. The machine is the first of its kind in the UK and one of the largest installations in the country.

Swedish company PulPac entered a strategic partnership with gategroup company deSter to develop and manufacture fiber-based, single-use food packaging for airline and foodservice customers, with deSter deploying a multi-million-euro investment in new machinery.

JobsOhio provided Burrows, a Novolex brand, a $400,000 grant to invest in new machinery, equipment and infrastructure at its food-packaging plants in Franklin and Mount Vernon, Ohio, where more than 300 employees work.

Progroup started construction of its PW14 corrugated sheetfeeder plant in Stryków, Poland, investing about €72 million. The plant will produce up to 200,000 tonnes of corrugated board sheets per year from Q4 2022 and create more than 50 jobs.

UK packaging manufacturer Robinson acquired Danish company Schela Plast, reported on February 12, 2021.

Packaging maker Ate Plast will invest 10 million leva in a new plant in the Zagore industrial zone in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, which received Class A priority investment status. The investment will create 35 jobs and produce flexible films, with construction taking 3 years.

A rail spur built by Stevens-Leinweber Construction gives Georgia-Pacific's GP Corrugated 100,000-square-foot Tolleson, Arizona facility direct Union Pacific rail access, completing the Tolleson Rail Corridor project.

MM Group agreed to acquire International Paper (Poland) Holding, owner of the Kwidzyn integrated pulp and paper mill in Poland, for about EUR 670 million debt- and cash-free, with closing expected in Q3 2021.

Irish packaging group Zeus Packaging acquired Austrian food packaging solutions business Petruzalek from Italmobiliare, completing a three-year acquisition strategy. The price was undisclosed; Petruzalek reportedly had 2020 revenues of about €58 million.

Dow has signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian recycler Lucro Plastecycle to develop a closed-loop packaging solution that recycles post-consumer PE film waste using Dow virgin resins, with first shrink films expected in India later in 2021.

Irani Papel e Embalagem is expanding its Campina da Alegria packaging plant in Vargem Bonita, Santa Catarina, Brazil, with the Gaia II project adding corrugated board capacity, with estimated investment of R$150.4 million.

Maxco Supply, a produce packaging design and manufacturing company, recently started operations at its newest plant in Parlier, California.

Dow and Lucro Plastecycle signed a memorandum of understanding to develop and launch polyethylene film solutions using post-consumer recycled plastics in India. The first application is collation shrink films, expected to be available later in 2021.

BC Partners, alongside the Vacchi family, completed the take-private of IMA Group, a world leader in automatic packaging machines, delisting it from the Milan stock exchange. BC Partners and the Vacchi family now control 100% of IMA.

SCG Packaging (SCGP) plans to invest over 10 billion baht to expand its integrated packaging business in Vietnam to meet demand from consumer goods and other industries. The article is dated 10 February 2021.

SCG Packaging plans to invest US$334 million in Vietnam as part of its expansion of packaging businesses, including the Duy Tan acquisition and paper production expansion in northern Vietnam.

SCG Packaging signed a contract with Duy Tan Plastics Manufacturing Corporation, Vietnam's leading rigid plastic packaging producer, on 9 February 2021 as part of its Vietnam expansion.

Sidel supplied its Aseptic Combi Predis technology to RJ Corp, whose operating company Varun Beverages installed it at a new facility in Punjab, India, earlier in 2021. It is the first commercial dairy PET aseptic packaging line in the region.

Walmart has chosen IFCO as its exclusive reusable plastic container packaging provider for select fresh fruits and vegetables in the US under a seven-year agreement. IFCO expects to create manufacturing jobs in the US.

Versa Pak Ltd will expand its facility in Celina, Ohio, adding 56,000 square feet and 30 total production lines. The $15 million project includes $12 million for new lines and will create over a dozen new jobs. Construction begins March 2021 and takes about six months.

Contract packer Framptons has installed the UK's first SIG Combidome carton bottle filler line, the first SIG Combidome installation for plant-based beverages in Europe. The line offers three filling volumes.

IFCO and Walmart completed a seven-year agreement making IFCO Walmart's exclusive RPC packaging provider for select fresh fruits and vegetables in the U.S. IFCO expects to create U.S.-based manufacturing jobs for new RPC production.

PACCOR plans to invest more than 40 million euros in 2021 in capacity, automation, logistics and technology. The investment includes new injection molding capacity at its Ravensburg site in Germany for in-mold labeled PP cups and lids.

Helvetia Packaging is increasing capacity by 30% at its aluminium can manufacturing facility in Saarlouis, Germany, this year. The plant previously had a maximum capacity of around 1.2 billion cans and ends per year.

Teqal, a producer of injection moulded rigid plastic containers, has been awarded a R50-million financing facility by the IDC to expand its factory at the Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone in South Africa.

An affiliate of Peak Rock Capital has acquired a majority holding in AMB, an Italian maker of food packaging films, as announced on February 5, 2021.

Kaas-Pack Holland of Hoogeveen, Netherlands, awarded Robertpack a contract in 2020 for a complete cheese packaging line, now installed and operational. The line includes a box erector, Fanuc robot cells, a box closer and a palletising robot.