Smurfit Kappa has announced that it will invest €24 million into the upgrade and expansion of its corrugated packaging plant in Rethel, northeast France.
The company says the investment demonstrates a continued commitment to its French customer market. In 2018, Smurfit Kappa acquired offset printing and cardboard packaging company Papcart including its 60 production, storage and office sites located in France.
The capital will be use to facilitate the consolidation of two existing facilities at the plant; as well as the installation of a new high-tech corrugator and conversion equipment.
Smurfit Kappa says the project will result in environmental improvements including a saving of at least 150 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually; as it works towards net zero emissions by 2050.
Phase one of the project will see the installation of a new corrugator, which will be hosted in a new 8,200 square-metre building and is due to be completed in the first half of 2022. Meanwhile, the full investment project is expected to be competed in 2023.
Edwin Goffard, COO of Smurfit Kappa Europe, corrugated and converting, said: “Smurfit Kappa’s ambition to strengthen its position in France continues with this significant new investment. This investment will allow us to grow further and improve our quality of service to the food and industrial markets that we serve.”
Jean-Christophe Bugeon, CEO of Smurfit Kappa France, added: “This investment will not only expand the capacity at our site, but it will also help us to tackle the ever-growing environmental issues our planet faces by significantly reducing the plant’s carbon footprint.”
Earlier this year, Smurfit Kappa invested €12 million to open a new flexible material production facility for bag-in-box packaging at its factory in Ibi, Spain.
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