• Rock-Tenn buys Canadian cartonmaker: The Norcross, GA-based packaging converter acquires Cartem Wilco Group, Inc., located in Montreal, on Jan. 20 for $65.3 million in cash. Rock-Tenn says it plans to create a health and beauty aids packaging unit that will include plants in Quebec; Kimball, TN; and Milwaukee.
• Cebal Americas to build Mexican plastic-tube plant: Cebal, a division of Pechiney Group's Packaging Sector, says Jan. 20 that it will build the $10 million facility at a location to be finalized soon. The plant will make plastic tubes for the North American cosmetics market, which has been growing at an increasing rate over the last several years.
• Jonergin Pacific adds HP Indigo ws4000 digital press: Jonergin, a wine-label producer based in Napa, CA, is a division of Invesprint Corp., a Canadian manufacturer of prime labels and specialty packaging. Jonergin has a 30,000-sq-ft facility where it creates p-s labels for some of the largest wineries in California, Oregon and Washington State.
• A tailor-made acquisition: Ft. Dearborn Co., Niles, IL, completes its buy of Brunswick, GA-based Coastal Sleeve Label, Inc., and at the same time, improves its flex-pack facilities in PA and IL to expand into flexo and gravure production capacity. The purchase adds CSL's new 36,000-sq-ft plant.
• Smurfit-Stone to close St. Paul folding-carton plant: Chicago-based SSCC says Jan. 17 that it will discontinue operations at that facility on or about March 15. The plant produces cartons for a variety of consumer-goods companies. A total of 82 hourly and 20 salaried employees are affected.
• Polymer service provider PolyOne to cut 400 jobs: The Cleveland-based firm says Jan. 14 that the cuts will improve profitability and reduce the company's cost structure by up to $35 million. PolyOne will also implement $5 million to $10 million in reductions of non-personnel costs.
• Dunmore to further expand Bristol, PA plant: Among the improvements—the addition of slot-die coating capability, a new 5,200-sq-ft R&D department, and the integration of the Newtown, PA, facility into the Bristol site. When complete, the Bristol plant will house three solvent and aqueous coating lines, two with in-line laminating capability and two with UV-coating capability; two vacuum metallizers; three slitter/rewinders; one dry laminator; and a pilot coating/laminating line.

Turkish flex-pack makers deliver the goods: A new study on the Turkish flexible-packaging industry from UK-based market researcher PCI Films Consulting suggests this is a country to watch closely. In just 30 years, Turkey's flex-pack industry has grown to become one of the top ten in Europe.

"The perception among European packers and retail groups is that the best Turkish converters can now match the high level of product quality and service offered by their European competitors," says PCI consultant Paul Gaster, "while at the same time often beating them on price. This is on medium specification products such as OPP/OPP laminates, but nonetheless, a specification that accounts for valuable business in confectionery, dried foods, biscuits and baked-goods packaging."

The Turkish flex-pack industry generated sales of about US $400 million in 2001 and is growing at around 10 percent a year—four times faster than elsewhere in Western Europe. Turkish converters are becoming increasingly formidable competitors in both Eastern and Western Europe and beyond. In spite of Turkey's severe economic problems, they have a strong and growing home market (8 percent per year), modern plants and equipment, low imports, and exports growing at 10-12 percent a year—mostly to Western, Central and Southern Europe, Russia and North Africa.