The Mayr-Melnhof Group (MM) has acquired 100% of the shares in Eson Pac, based in Veddige, Sweden, from the majority shareholder Nalka Invest AB and the minority shareholders from family and management. With a total turnover of around EUR 48 million, Eson Pac develops, produces and sells high-quality secondary packaging solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. The company has three production sites in Sweden and one in Denmark, focusing on folding boxes, leaflets and labels. Eson Pac currently employs around 300 people. "With this acquisition, we are strengthening our presence within the premium segment of the packaging division. The transaction ideally complements our current customer base and offers attractive new opportunities. In combination with our existing activities, we can offer our customers even more innovative and sustainable solutions. We are very confident that together with the highly qualified team from Eson Pac, we will successfully advance the joint growth course", commented MM CEO Peter Oswald.

Huhtamaki, a key global provider of sustainable packaging solutions for consumers around the world, has achieved an important technology breakthrough in developing next generation sustainable tube laminates. Working in partnership with LyondellBasell, Plastuni Lisses (Groupe Somater) and Groupe Rocher, Huhtamaki is launching a tube laminate with more than 40% recycled content from renewable based plastics. The laminate is primarily suitable for product applications in the cosmetics, personal care, oral care, and food sectors. The new laminate makes a significant contribution to fully circular flexible packaging solutions for these sectors. Working across the value chain where every partner has its own responsibility, LyondellBasell as the resin supplier, Huhtamaki as the laminate manufacturer, Plastuni Lisses as the tube maker and the leading cosmetics, home care and apparel company Groupe Rocher as the brand owner, Huhtamaki has successfully developed its next generation of tube laminates. For this innovative project, Huhtamaki focused on facilitating the incorporation and use of recycled materials creating recyclable products which increase the circularity of laminated tubes. To this end, it used resins from LyondellBasell’s innovative CirculenRenew polymers that are produced with renewable feedstock from bio-based sources from waste and residues such as used cooking oil, using a mass balance approach. These are certified under the ISCC PLUS standard.

Nine Dragons Paper, the biggest manufacturer of packaging paper in China, has commissioned Voith to build and deliver three XcelLine paper machines for the production of high performance testliner and white top testliner. The three lines will further strengthen the paper manufacturer’s leading position in the packaging paper segment. The commissioning of the machines is planned for 2022 and 2023. “We are delighted to have received the orders from China’s largest packaging paper manufacturer Nine Dragons and we look forward to our renewed collaboration on a partnership basis,” says Hanson Zhao, Vice President Sales & Application Asia at Voith Paper. The planned daily production volume of the three identical paper machines is especially high: approximately 2,400 metric tons each, at production speeds of 1,400 m/min. In order to meet these requirements, the components must be extremely high-performing and robust. The elaborate former design of the machines, which are equipped with a DuoFormer DII E, allows for the required speed with high basis weights at the same time.