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AssiDoman is in discussions to sell its Dundee paper sack factory to a management team, in order to prevent its closure. 29-Dec-1998 Ardagh of Ireland has been selected as the preferred bidder to acquire the Rockware packaging business for about £250m. 28-Dec-1998 New Waterside Paper Mills is to close its plant in Darwen, Lancashire, by the end of March, with the loss of 180 jobs. 17-Dec-1998 AssiDoman Sacks is to close its paper sack-making factory in Dundee with the loss of 93 jobs, and production will be transferred to Hull and Kent. 17-Dec-1998 Field Group is cutting 27 jobs at its cigarette packaging factory in Portsmouth. 15-Dec-1998 API is planning to invest £5m in a 51% stake in a Chinese foil stamping joint venture. 15-Dec-1998 Lawson Mardon is selling off part of its site at Warmley, near Bristol, and the proceeds will be used to expand its tobacco packaging factory. 14-Dec-1998 Iggesund of Sweden is investing £51m at its paperboard mill in Siddick, Cumbria, securing 600 jobs and increasing output from 190,000 tonnes to more than 235,000 tonnes. 11-Dec-1998 David S Smith is to cut a further 400 jobs at its UK paper and packaging operations in order to improve efficiency. 10-Dec-1998 Tetra Pak has confirmed that 62 jobs will be cut at its Wrexham plant, due to a fall in demand for milk cartons. 07-Dec-1998 Rexam is close to announcing the sale of its industrial packaging business for up to £300m, and this will be followed by the disposal of its printing and building operations. 04-Dec-1998 United Glass is to close its glass factory in St Helens in March with the loss of 450 jobs, and production will be transferred to sites in Alloa and Harlow. 02-Dec-1998 Rexam is launching a £380m takeover bid for PLM, the Swedish can and bottle maker. 01-Dec-1998 Field Group is discussing the acquisition of a Spanish healthcare packaging business, and is looking for a partner to expand its activities in continental Europe. 01-Dec-1998 David S Smith is considering plans to sell its Spicers Wholesaling office products business for an estimated £250m, and has held talks with a number of companies. 27-Nov-1998 Waddington, the packaging company, is seeking UK acquisitions in all three of its divisions - pharmaceutical, food services and printing - and could spend up to £100m. 27-Nov-1998 De La Rue is to cut 165 jobs at its security printing operation on Tyneside before the end of the year, leaving a workforce of 150. 24-Nov-1998 CCL is cutting up to 70 jobs at its aerosol plant in Scunthorpe, but there will be no cuts at its Grimsby plant. 24-Nov-1998 Sappi Europe is to manufacture a new grade of paper called Royal Web at its Blackburn mill, following a £40m investment. 23-Nov-1998 Tetra Pak is said to be preparing to cut up to 40 jobs at its cartons factory in Wrexham due to a fall in orders. 19-Nov-1998 Sidlaw is looking to spend up to £30m acquiring a flexible packaging company in Europe over the next six months. 17-Nov-1998 Arjo Wiggins Appleton is to cut a further 50 jobs at its Stoneywood Paper Mill in Aberdeen. 13-Nov-1998 Skymark Packaging is to invest up to £2m on lamination lines for its newly-acquired Huntsman Packaging business in Scunthorpe, and up to 30 new jobs will be created over the coming year. 09-Nov-1998 Macfarlane Group is to cut 200 jobs, including 90 at its Daniel Montgomery tamper-proof bottle top manufacturing operation at Kirkintilloch and 65 at its Govan-based A&W Fullarton subsidiary. 06-Nov-1998 Geka Manufacturing is to create 40 jobs at its packaging plant in Stanley, Co Durham, having won a £1.3m expansion grant from the Department of Trade and Industry. 06-Nov-1998 Applied Holographics has won the contract to supply the Stationery Office with tamper-evident holographic film for passports. 05-Nov-1998 AVC of Abertillery has won £0.5m of funding to help it launch an adjustable volume container, which increases the life-span of liquids when opened by expelling air through a telescopic-like process. 02-Nov-1998 J Arthur Dixon, the greetings cards company, is to cut a further 11 jobs at its printing plant on the Isle of Wight as part of a plan to switch printing to the mainland. 26-Oct-1998 Procter and Gamble is cutting 150 jobs at its Trafford Park tissues plant due to a reorganisation of manufacturing operations. 23-Oct-1998 Ditone, the St Neots labels firm, has opened a new factory at Kimbolton in order to double its production space. 22-Oct-1998 Kimberly Clark is to close its hygiene products factory at Deeside Industrial Park in Flintshire, with the loss of more than 90 jobs. 22-Oct-1998 Jarvis Porter, the label and packaging company, has ended discussions with Sonoco of the US about buying the Sonoco Harlands and Sonoco Machinery businesses. 15-Oct-1998 Pakfin, the magazine wrapper, is planning to create a further 100 jobs by opening a second site in Colchester. 14-Oct-1998 Traxdata is planning to create a further 200 jobs at its new £5.5m compact disc packing plant in Williamstown, Wales. 13-Oct-1998 Webinvest is to close BPC Thomas Forman, the Nottingham-based label printing plant, with the loss of 130 jobs. 13-Oct-1998 Rexam has begun discussions with potential buyers of its industrial packaging division, thought to be worth about £200m. 13-Oct-1998 Linpac Plastics Recycling has more than doubled capacity at its plant at Allerton Bywater, near Castleford, as part of a plan to increase the level of recycling activity from 10,000 tonnes a year to 25,000 tonnes by the end of the year 2000. 12-Oct-1998 Rexam is considering plans to spend up to £1bn on foreign acquisitions to expand its specialist packaging and coated film and paper divisions. 08-Oct-1998 Arjo Wiggins Appleton's carbonless paper mill at Fort William is said to be up for sale and a number of potential purchasers have already looked over the plant. 30-Sep-1998 The Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment has launched a voluntary code of practice to show the government that the industry can regulate itself with regards to saving energy and materials. 26-Sep-1998 Linpac Metal Packaging is to cut 135 jobs at its Woodley plant near Reading, and transfer half of the operation to more advanced plants in South Wales. 25-Sep-1998 Reed Print & Design and Kelly Packaging have agreed a disaster recovery plan so that if carton manufacturing is disrupted at either of their north-east factories, work will be shifted to the other's site. 24-Sep-1998 Storey Evans, the West Yorkshire packaging printer, is moving to new premises in Bradford in order to gain a significantly larger production area. 24-Sep-1998 Rexam has raised its stake in Der Kwai, the Asian plastic packaging company, from 33% to 67% at a cost of £14m. 19-Sep-1998 Jefferson Smurfit is selling the Condat paper mill in France to CVC Capital Partners for £180m. 19-Sep-1998 Smith Anderson is to cut up to 100 jobs at its paper mill in Leslie, Fife, due to a fall in exports. 17-Sep-1998 Low & Bonar is buying the cartons arm of Waddington for £67.5m, which will help to generate savings of £6m a year and lead to the loss of about 200 jobs in Swindon, Leeds and Speke. 15-Sep-1998 David S Smith is to restructure its John Dickinson Stationery subsidiary by closing one plant and consolidating output at the three remaining sites, with the loss of about 400 jobs. 10-Sep-1998 Jefferson Smurfit has acquired a 50% stake in Macmillan Bathurst, the Canadian corrugated container company, for £76m. 09-Sep-1998 AM Paper is investing £145m in new machinery at Skelmersdale, having won a major contract to supply tissue products to Asda. 08-Sep-1998 Taylowe, the Maidenhead-based packaging company, is to cut 70 jobs due to the loss of a contract from a cigarette manufacturer. 04-Sep-1998 Cleland Group, the Belfast-based packaging manufacturer, is investing £1.6m in new printing and finishing technology as part of a strategy to create the biggest one-stop packaging shop in the UK. 03-Sep-1998 Swan Mill Paper Company has acquired Sterling Paper Converters, the Llandarcy-based gift wrap manufacturer. 31-Aug-1998 Electra Fleming, the UK investment management group, has acquired Guala Closures, the Italian maker of tamper-resistant bottle tops, in a management buy-in for undisclosed terms. 31-Aug-1998 Rexam has announced plans to sell more businesses with total sales of £300m, and they are thought to include industrial packaging, book printing and building materials. 28-Aug-1998 Kepak UK is planning to build a £3m packaging plant in Preston. 26-Aug-1998 Jefferson Smurfit is in discussions with CVC Capital Partners about the sale of its stake in Smurfit Condat, the French coated wood-free mill. 20-Aug-1998 Valpak has launched a web site to provide information on its packaging waste compliance scheme, at www.valpak.co.uk. 17-Aug-1998 Fulmar, the printing and pre-press services provider, has formed a joint venture with Packard Press of the US to be called Royle Packard International. 12-Aug-1998 Arjo Wiggins Appleton is to review its carbonless and thermal paper activities, which could involve co-operating with another company in the sector or expanding the non-US side of the business. 30-Jul-1998 Jefferson Smurfit is increasing its stake in Nettingsdorfer Papierfabrik Aktiengesellschaft, the Austrian paper producer, from 27% to 75% at a cost of £46m. 27-Jul-1998 Crest Packaging is undergoing a review of its flexible packaging business and has just completed a major investment programme in its cartons division. 22-Jul-1998 Arjo Wiggins Appleton has acquired a 60% stake in RTC, the Romanian paper merchant, which will extend its European merchanting network. 20-Jul-1998 David S Smith, the paper and packaging group, has expressed its determination to expand in continental Europe, possibly through a big acquisition, despite a fall in profits. 17-Jul-1998 Low & Bonar is undergoing a reorganisation of its packaging operation by building up its plastics and specialist materials interests, in response to tough market conditions. 08-Jul-1998 Rexam is to return £250m to shareholders having failed to find suitable acquisitions, but will still be able to spend £150m on bolt-on acquisitions. 07-Jul-1998 Norcros is planning to sell its Norprint labelling and magnetic tickets operation, and is looking for acquisitions to boost its core businesses of speciality chemicals and light building materials. 26-Jun-1998 Jarvis Porter is discussing the acquisition of Sonoco Harlands and Sonoco Machinery, the label printing businesses active in the UK, France and the US. 25-Jun-1998 The European Pallet Association has agreed a deal with the UK Timber Packaging and Pallet Confederation that will enable UK-manufactured pallets to circulate freely in Europe if they are designed to EPA specifications. 23-Jun-1998 Rexam is said to have been approached by a number of potential buyers that are interested in the group's building and engineering operations. 22-Jun-1998 Robert H Lowe is planning to sell or close its sportswear division in order to focus on printing and packaging. 19-Jun-1998 Procter & Gamble is to set up a £100m tissues and towels factory in Manchester, creating 200 jobs, and production is due to start within two years. 10-Jun-1998 Field Group is looking to move its packaging business into new areas, following the success of its efforts in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. 10-Jun-1998 Waddington is looking to sell its cartons business due to overcapacity in the sector, and hopes to complete the sale within six months. 09-Jun-1998 Critchley is planning to spend up to £15m on acquisitions in order to expand its high technology labels business. 09-Jun-1998 Jefferson Smurfit has sold CDI, the French high-grade waste paper business, to Interseroh of Germany for £22m. 05-Jun-1998 The EU is said to be considering plans to delay the introduction of the compulsory use of metric units on product labelling from January 2000, as many US and European companies are wanting to carry both metric and imperial measures. 01-Jun-1998 The EU has formally approved the introduction of measures for the labelling of foods that contain genetically modified soya and maize, but a decision still needs to be made about which products will be exempt because they contain only small amounts. 27-May-1998 Jarvis Porter, the labels printer, is looking to expand its health and beauty and drinks divisions through acquisition, and is also in discussions with a number of other printers about forming an alliance. 20-May-1998 Jefferson Smurfit's US affiliate is acquiring Stone Container for £1.4bn to create the largest pure paper-based packaging group in the world, and the new group will be called Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation. 12-May-1998 Sidlaw is looking to make acquisitions in the European flexible packaging sector, which is expected to see a period of consolidation caused by EU clean air regulations. 06-May-1998 MY Holdings is expecting to make a £25m acquisition in the coming weeks, and analysts believe its target could be Ferry Pickering, the carton producing subsidiary of Wace. 29-Apr-1998 Jefferson Smurfit Corporation of the US, which is 46.5% owned by the Irish packaging group, has confirmed that it is in discussions to merge with Stone Container in order to create the largest container board producer in North America. 29-Apr-1998 Rexam has bought the remaining 50% of Rexam ITAP, its Brazilian packaging joint venture which has annual sales of about £2.5m. 28-Apr-1998 David S Smith is facing competition from Metsa Serla of Finland in its attempt to buy the corrugated cardboard business of the Dutch group KNP, and a preferred bidder is expected to be announced next week. 27-Apr-1998 Owens-Illinois of the US has been told by the European Commission that it must dispose of BTR's glass packaging operations in the UK in order to win approval for its £2.2bn bid, which means it will not be able to benefit from the merger of the two UK businesses. 24-Apr-1998 Jefferson Smurfit is said to be considering a plan to merge its US corrugated cardboard business with Stone Container, the US cardboard company, in order to reduce competitive pressure in the sector. 23-Apr-1998 ACX Technologies of the US is looking to acquire carton manufacturers in the UK and other European countries following its recent acquisition of Britton, and is prepared to spend up to £200m. 22-Apr-1998 David S Smith has reached the second round of the auction to acquire the cardboard packaging business of KNP of the Netherlands, which is thought to be worth £860m. 21-Apr-1998 De La Rue is planning to acquire Cellograf, the Italian maker of plastic cards, for £6.7m. 17-Apr-1998 Blagden Industries has sold its steel drum packaging business to Drum Holdings for £98m, and is now looking to invest £160m in the creation of a speciality chemicals business. 10-Apr-1998 Jefferson Smurfit is said to be considering plans to acquire a paper plant in Brazil, and is also looking at the possibility of taking control of its US associate or merging it with another North American group. 01-Apr-1998 Macfarlane, the packaging manufacturer, has identified a number of potential acquisitions. 27-Mar-1998 Rexam has earmarked £500m for further acquisitions, and claims to be on schedule with its cost-cutting and disposals programme. 26-Mar-1998 Boxmore International may decide to build a packaging plant in continental Europe if it fails to find a suitable acquisition, as part of its strategy to provide a pan-European service to multinational customers. 25-Mar-1998 Rexam is acquiring a $10m minority stake in Calmar, the Californian cosmetics packaging business that produces spray and lotion pumps, and analysts believe that a full takeover could follow. 12-Mar-1998 Fletcher Paper of New Zealand is in discussions to sell its UK Paper subsidiary for about £160m. 11-Mar-1998 The Institute of Grocery Distribution has devised new voluntary guidelines for food and drink nutritional labelling, which will give consumers clear details of the fat and calorie content per serving. 28-Feb-1998 MY Holdings is forming an alliance with companies in France, Italy and Germany, in order to offer customers a pan-European supply of pharmaceutical packaging products. 23-Feb-1998 Low & Bonar is looking to build up its plastics and specialist materials businesses through acquisition, while its packaging business will be focused on folding cartons and packaging services in Europe and industrial packaging in North America. 18-Feb-1998 Clondalkin of Ireland is looking to acquire more packaging companies in Europe and North America. 18-Feb-1998 BWI, the packaging and process equipment company, has denied speculation that it is undergoing takeover talks. 17-Feb-1998 Rexam is acquiring a 33.3% stake in Der Kwei, the Taiwanese cosmetics packaging group, for £25m, and has an option to buy a majority stake. 30-Jan-1998 Timber Estates is planning to raise up to £10m with a flotation on Aim in March, which will be used to finance the acquisition and development of a portfolio of forestry plantations. 28-Jan-1998 Smurfit Carton y Papel, a Mexican subsidiary of Jefferson Smurfit, has sold its plastics division to Owens Illinois of the US for £5.2m. 20-Jan-1998 Bespak is to invest £40m over the next three years to switch its asthma inhalers over to environmentally-friendly HFA gases and to increase production capacity for dry-powder inhalers. 14-Jan-1998 BTR is inviting potential bidders to make an offer for its packaging business by February 2nd, indicating that Owens Illinois has not been given exclusive negotiating rights. 13-Jan-1998 W Canning, the speciality chemicals company, is reorganising its troubled French business by halving the number of personnel at the Eficca aerosol-filling operation, and has also announced plans to open a new factory in Brazil. 08-Jan-1998 BFT Plastics is linking up with Krupp Kautex of Germany to make plastic pallets at its Carrickfergus plant in Northern Ireland, and plans to employ up to 70 people in its challenge to the worldwide dominance of wooden pallets. 02-Jan-1998
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