Sonoco, a diversified global packaging company, has completed an 18,000ft² expansion at its Waynesville thermoforming facility in North Carolina.
The company, which plans to start up a new multilayer, trim-in-place line, has added capacity through plant consolidation efforts at the location.
With this, Sonoco will be able to produce a variety of containers for chilled as well as shelf stable products.
As a result of the new line and added capacity, 33 new employees have been hired.
Rigid Plastics vice president Rodger Fuller said: "This investment in large-scale multilayer polypropylene production complements our existing capabilities for processed food packaging, which include crystallized polyethylene terephthalate (CPET) and polypropylene frozen food trays; portion control cups; and blow molded bottles for retorted and aseptically processed beverages."
"Sonoco Plastics is a leader in designing and producing innovative, customized rigid plastic packaging for some of the largest food and beverage producers in North America," he added.
With 25 plastics operations in the US, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Netherlands and Germany, Sonoco Plastics is a manufacturer of monolayer and multilayer blow-molded bottles and jars, thermoformed cups and trays and engineered molded and extruded containers, spools and trays.
Melitta USA, a part of Germany-based Melitta Group, has recently partnered with Sonoco to convert from traditional metal cans to lighter weight paperboard composite containers.
