• A bigger share of the pie: Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp. and Chesapeake Corp., Richmond, Va., agree for G-P to purchase from Chesapeake an additional 27 percent interest in Color-Box, LLC for $35 million. The transaction was expected to close early this month. Color-Box, LLC designs and converts litho-laminated corrugated graphic packaging. It has facilities in Madera and Visalia, Calif.; Richmond, Ind.; Dubuque and Monticello, Iowa; and Pelahatchie, Miss. G-P will own 81 percent of the joint venture after the transaction.

• Enhancing pouchmaking: The Enhance packaging subsidiary of DuPont Canada acquires Prepac, producer of liquid-pouch packaging and equipment. Prepac employs 70 in France and has 24 distributors worldwide. In five years, Enhance plans to expand its business from $200 million to $500 million.

• Label it high-tech: St. Paul, Minn.-based 3M Co. acquires the Smith & McLaurin Ltd. site in Glasgow, Scotland, supplier of high-quality film laminates for performance labels in the electronics, automotive and industrial markets of Europe.

• Four in a row: PCI Services adds a five-color, 40-in. Mitsubishi sheetfed press to enhance production capacity of its package-printing operation in Pennsauken, N.J. Rated at 13,000 sph and equipped with a tower coater for applying aqueous coatings, the Model 3F-13 is the company's fourth Mitsubishi press.

• Tech center at the ready: BASF's Printing Systems business unit, manufacturer of photopolymer printing plates and inks, opens a new technical center in Charlotte, N.C., to serve the North American market. The center houses platemaking equipment for flexographic and letterpress plates, as well as a technical service lab for plates and inks.

• Acquisition leads to new moniker: InPeake Packaging, Inc., is the new name for all the former Chesapeake Packaging Co. corrugated-converting operations that were acquired by Indianapolis-based Inland Paperboard May 18.
• Global engineering support: Coater/metallizer maker Galileo Vacuum Systems, East Granby, Conn., says June 18 it will use technology developed by Montvale, N.J.-based Ei3 to deliver online engineering support and machinery-performance analysis to its customers worldwide. The e-service technology will assist Galileo's customers with improved production for the converting of films and papers for flexible packaging, labeling and holographic products.

More than 6.5 billion sq meters of pressure-sensitive substrate was consumed by label converters worldwide last year, says pressmaker Gallus. Continued healthy growth is forecast through 2004.