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Multiple packaging companies continued a trend this year of investing in innovation or training centers in November, touting potential benefits for design collaboration with customers and upskilling workers.
- UFP Packaging announced Thursday it opened a packaging design and development center at its Newnan, Georgia, facility. The 10,000-square-foot center near Atlanta features spaces for lab testing, design reviews and other hands-on opportunities to engage in packaging development. It also has a prototyping shop. “Many of our customers have unique products that require more than an off-the-shelf packaging solution,” said J.F. Granger, executive vice president of structural packaging, in the announcement. These enable more opportunities for refining customers’ sustainable packaging designs, the company said, as well as optimizing pallet solutions.
- Releaf Paper, a European startup that uses fibers from fallen leaves to produce material for packaging, launched a pilot production line and innovation center in Les Mureaux, France, Packaging Insights reported. The approximately $3.7 million investment was co-funded by the European Innovation Council. In the next five years, the company aims to set up multiple recycling facilities in Europe and expand to the U.S., Canada and Japan, and also grow to accept agricultural waste.
- Mondi launched FlexStudios in Steinfeld, Germany, this month — a new building with three floors of collaborative space dedicated to research and lab testing, developing pilots and designing fit-for-purpose flexible packaging. “By bringing pilot lines, testing capabilities and co-creation space together under one roof, Mondi can reduce time-to-market for new packaging and paper solutions,” the company wrote. Mondi said the center will help with progress toward its 2030 sustainability goals.
- Alpla broke ground on a learning and development hub located in Iowa City, Iowa, close to certain Alpla plants and apprenticeship community college partnerships. The upskilling and reskilling site will have an electrical workshop and a mold workshop. It will also be home to Alpla’s training and development initiatives, including its apprenticeship program, which the Austrian company says “provides free education, training and a career pipeline to future manufacturing professionals.” Alpla will invest between $10 million and $15 million in the 35,000-square-foot facility that’s projected to be completed in mid-2025.
Other facility announcements
- Nefab opened a 140,000-square-foot plant in Tucson, Arizona, an area it describes as “a key hub for the mining, manufacturing, and technology sectors.” Nefab said the facility’s largest customer will be FLSmidth, a supplier to the mining and cement industries. Sweden-based Nefab said this “eco-conscious” facility represents a “multi-million-dollar” investment and created 100 jobs. Nefab also added sites in Houston and Gainesville, Florida, this year.
- PPC Flexible Packaging expanded its cleanroom manufacturing space by 25% at its Buffalo Grove, Illinois, facility — a move it said would help meet rising demand for sterilizable pharmaceutical and medical device packaging. The company also said it doubled its climate-controlled warehouse space and added new machinery.
- TriMas on Monday launched a highly automated 225,000-square-foot facility in Haining, China, the result of a 2023 decision to exit two older sites in China and move that capacity into one new manufacturing facility that can make dispensing pumps, caps and closures for Asian customers. The Michigan-based company said its technologies enable safer, more sustainable and efficient operations, and reduce labor expenses. CEO Thomas Amato said TriMas now has “advanced flagship locations” in the U.S., Mexico and China, “strategically positioning us for continued growth across these key regions.”
- TransPak opened a more than 55,000-square-foot facility in the Netherlands last week. The Silicon Valley-based company said this addition supports “its growing European client base, with a particular focus on the burgeoning semiconductor sector in the region.” The company indicated this is part of its broader strategy to build out its global presence in critical markets. The site adds cleanroom space, as well as capacity for design services, insulated packaging and custom crating, among other services.
