Frontline

Staff -- Converting Magazine, 3/1/2001

Artful acquisition: Algoma, Wis.-based labelmaker W/S Packaging Group, Inc., acquires the assets Feb. 14 of Label Art, Wilton, N.H. W/S says it will retain the business under the name Label Art, which includes converting plants in Wilton, Tucker, Ga., San Carlos, Calif., and Ft. Smith, Ark.

Second combo press online: New York-based Prestige Label Co., Inc., completes the January installation of another 10-color, UV-flexo Rotopress combination press at its Burgaw, N.C., plant. It's the p-s label converter's second such unit acquired since mid-2000.

Another kind of combination: Uniting the business interests of Delta Plastics, Newark, N.J., and Essex Plastics, Pompano Beach, Fla., results in the new firm FlexSol Packaging Corp. The converter turns out an extensive line of PE-based films and bags from five plants across the U.S.

From 11 to four: Schaumburg, Ill.-based Impaxx, Inc., consolidates its 11 packaging companies into four dedicated business groups. They encompass Impaxx Machine (labelers); the Eastern Packaging Group (Innovative Folding Carton Co., Gilbreth); the Western Packaging Group (Label Express, AC Label, Pac-West Label, IL Walker); and the Pharmaceutical Group (Arlington Press).

James K. Feeney, president and treasurer of Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp., Lincoln, R.I., will retire March 21. He became president of the company when it was founded in Dec. 1977 as the U.S. subsidiary of the German parent company. W & H supplies machinery to the paper and plastics converting and packaging industry.

Easing transactions: Selecterra, an E-marketplace serving the $40-billion specialty converting industry, links up with CommerceQuest Feb. 13 to use its enableNet Managed Service as Selecterra.com's business-integration hub. Buyers and sellers can now reportedly transact deals faster and more efficiently, including order fulfillment, collaborative planning and logistics.

IPC patents GrafXflüt: Innovative Packaging Corp., Milwaukee, patents its miniature-flute substrate known as GrafXflüt (G-flute corrugated), which it introduced in late 1998. The material is an alternative to traditional substrates such as solid fiberboard and litho-laminations on E-flute corrugated.

More than $5.6 billion of printing inks are forecast to be sold in 2004, says a new Freedonia Group study. Emerging technologies in digital printing and rapid expansion of the inkjet process will support growth of almost 11 percent a year for digital inks over the next three years.