Linpac opens PVC film plant in China

Linpac Packaging has opened a PVC stretch wrap film extrusion plant in China, located at Changzhou in Jiangsu province, about 150km from Shanghai.

The UK-headquartered Linpac Group has three other factories in China operated by its Linpac Viscount business which make plastic pails and containers.

These factories are at Changzhou, Guangzhou and Langfang and Linpac Viscount has other manufacturing operations in Malaysia and Thailand.

But the new Changzhou plant - officially opened on 12 June - is the first factory in Asia for Linpac Packaging, which is the group’s largest business and supplies plastic packaging to the food sector.

Divisional president and managing director, Ralf Wunderlich, said: “I am proud that we now have a divisional presence on five continents.”

The latest facility contains two extrusion lines for the large-scale production of PVC stretch wrap. It employs 60 permanent staff and has been purpose-built on a 20,000 sq metre site, with the capacity for extension to 50,000 sq metres if required.

As part of preparations before the opening of the plant, two Chinese teams spent time at Linpac’s manufacturing facility in Pontivy, France. This gave the teams access to 25 years’ experience in the protective food packaging sector.

Linpac Group ceo, Mike Arrowsmith, said: “The new Changzhou plant will allow us to accelerate our development in China and throughout the Asia Pacific area.

“Linpac’s aim is to deliver the same high quality packaging materials and efficient service to our customers in Asia that we provide elsewhere in the world, while developing our regional customer base.”