Elopak has announced it is to build a state of the art production plant in China as part of a strategy to increase the company's worldwide presence.
The new investment is a joint venture with the Japanese company Nippon Paper-Pak Co Ltd, and Elopak is the majority shareholder with 75 per cent. The venture will extend the existing relationship of over 10 years between Elopak and Nippon Paper-Pak, through Nippon Paper-Pak's licensee for Elopaks Pure-Pak® carton in Japan.
Elopak is one of the world's leading suppliers of packaging systems for liquid food products and develops, manufactures and sells complete systems for packaging of non-carbonated liquid food products. It has had a presence in China since 2000 with a representative office in Beijing. The establishment of a subsidiary in the country will enable a more efficient response to customer requests and significantly improve service and delivery times to the Chinese market.
“China is currently experiencing a substantial growth in the liquid food market and a local presence is mandatory if we are to be part of this opportunity,” said Bjørn Flatgård, president and ceo of Elopak, who signed the joint venture agreement in Tokyo. “Elopak is developing strongly with a focus on organic growth within our core segments and increased attention towards innovation, and with this new joint venture we will be able to bring state of the art technology and solutions into the Chinese market,” he added.
The first phase of the investment will be in a manufacturing plant that will supply a range of products and services to Chinese customers. The manufacturing plant will print and convert materials for beverage cartons using state of the art technology and have a capacity of about 700 million cartons a year. The principle product will be Pure-Pak® cartons that are formed and filled at the customers' location, using Pure-Pak® filling equipment for fresh milk, aseptic juices and speciality products.
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