Equity firm nabs American Roller: Chicago-based CM Acquisitions LLC agrees Dec. 7 to acquire American Roller Co., Bannockburn, Ill. The sale was expected to close Dec. 28; terms were not released. American Roller had been privately held by the Ditzler family since its founding in 1938. It operates six plants across the U.S. Bob Ditzler, current company president, will become a board member of the new organization. "The company is a technology leader in the roller industry, and we intend to build on that," says Chuck Tasch, principal in CM Acquisitions.

Pactiv divests corrugated unit; to build distribution center: The Lake Forest, Ill.-based converter for consumer, foodservice/food and protective/flex-pack markets, agrees Dec. 3 to sell its single-faced corrugated business in The Netherlands to Palm Industrie Beteiligungs GmbH Co. KG. With sales of about $20 million in 2000, the sale is another step in restructuring the company's Protective and Flexible Packaging segment. Pactiv also released plans Dec. 5 to build a Western regional distribution center in Bakersfield, Calif.

Klöckner Pentaplast acquires Witt Plastics: Gordonsville, Va.-based Klöckner will purchase Witt, Greenville, Ohio, for an undisclosed sum. Witt makes custom, extruded high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) and polypropylene (PP) films. Its products are used in the food, medical, printing, electronic and general-purpose thermoforming markets.

Pliant to add second BC film line: The flex-pack film maker will install the specialty, cast-embossed film line at its Washington, Ga., plant in May 2002. The new $7.2 million system, which is expected to be running commercially by August 2002, is supplied by Black Clawson Converting Mchy. LLC, Fulton, N.Y. It is the second cast line installed at the facility in two years.

Editors test-drive presses: Executives at MAN-Roland treated converting and packaging trade-press editors to a lavish dinner at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago Dec. 13 before turning them loose on two new sheetfed presses at its Westmont, Ill., Graphics Center, the following day. Billed as a press "test drive," the morning session actually walked editors through MAN-Roland's Job Pilot software, where they worked in teams to set up various print jobs from a number of desktop PCs. Editors then toured the demo area to see the two presses—Roland 306LV and 706LV—run the set-up jobs.

Labels and flex packs will be the fastest-growing segments of the printed-packaging market through 2005, says a new GAMIS study. Flexo is the dominant process with a 65 percent share of sales.

In its 2002 Business Forecast, the Ronkonkoma, N.Y.-based Flexographic Technical Assn. predicts that growth of the flexo-printing industry will outpace performance of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.

FTA says flexo will grow between 4 and 5 percent next year, compared to slightly less than the 2 percent improvement expected in the U.S. government's benchmark index.

Corrugated/preprint production will lead all flexographic business segments in terms of the value of product produced. Revenues should total $29 billion, representing 24 percent of the industry's volume.

Flexible-film packaging will lead all sectors in terms of percentage of growth charted in 2002. Volume is expected to reach $20.4 billion, representing growth of 3.5 to 4 percent over 2001 levels. Flexible-film packaging will account for another 24 percent of the flexo market.

As for the folding carton sector, it represents tremendous opportunity for flexography. Presently, less than one-quarter of all output is printed flexographically and 125 plants produce the materials. Still, the sector represents 19.3 percent of flexo-printing revenues, with 2002 business expected to translate to $16.5 billion.

North America's 3,000+ flexo-label printers saw volume grow by 3 to 4 percent in 2001, but increased competition and tight operating budgets contributed to a small erosion in margins.