Hartsville, S.C.-based Sonoco Products purchases Jan. 10 the U.K. core and tube converting business of Jefferson Smurfit Group. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Smurfit's core/tube business is based at three facilities in Slough, Leek and Jarrow, U.K. The plants had 2000 sales of approximately $16 million from paper-based tubes and cores for the paper, plastics, paper converting and packaging industries. Sonoco already has four similar tube/core converting facilities: two in England, one in Northern Ireland and one in Scotland.