Sonoco boosts packaging capacity
increasing demand for flexible printed packaging in confectionery.
The US-based company did not disclose the acquisition price for Wycon's packaging assets and business, which includes a 135,000 square-foot facility in Texas with two 12-colour rotogravure presses.
"Rotogravure printed flexible packaging makes up nearly 60 per cent of Sonoco's flexible packaging annual sales and we are projecting that our customers' expanding needs will drive growth," said Charles Sullivan, the company's executive vice president.
"The Wycon facility is an excellent strategic fit for Sonoco as it provides us with a state of the art facility, an established workforce and a platform to accelerate our flexible packaging growth in the Southwest United States and Mexico," he added.
In addition to the Wycon business Sonoco is expanding its operations in Canada.
"We also expect to complete the instillation in May 2006 of an additional 8-colour flexographic press at our Terrebonne, Quebec, Canada, flexible packaging plant, primarily to serve the confectionery market," Sullivan said.
Sonoco currently serves consumer product companies in the gum, confectionery, hard baked goods and snack foods markets.
The company, founded in 1899, has operations in 35 different countries and annual sales of $3.5bn.
