The company will now transfer production to serve its customers from three other facilities in Weiden, Germany, Ankara, Turkey and Kleszczów, Poland.
Chocolate bars, biscuits, wafers
Daniel Smith, head of group communications, Constantia Flexibles, said the announcement was difficult to communicate but it did it in a transparent way to customers and employees.
The 41,000m² site operates up to two color printing (rotrogravure) machines, adhesive lamination (solvent, solventless and water-based), coating, lacquering and slitting to print, laminate and finish reel-fed flexible packaging.
It manufactures laminated and printed multi-layered substrates of film and foil, including chocolate bars, biscuits and wafers, seasonal products and pralines, coin foil, chewing gum, inner and outer wrappers, and twist film.
“We acquired the Bucharest plant through the Asaş acquisition in Turkey in 2011,” added Smith.
“We spent many resources trying to improve an already challenging situation but after several years, different options were considered and a closure was finally decided upon.
“We will now make the final customer shipments and gradually transfer the machinery to other plants.”
Constantia Flexibles’ Food Europe Division has 12 production sites in eight countries, serving the dairy, processed meat and confectionery/processed food industries.
Weiden investment
The company invested approximately €4m ($4.5m) at its manufacturing site in Weiden, Germany, last year including a 10-color rotogravure printing machine, which will start production in Q2, 2017.
Stefan Grote, executive VP, Food Europe, Constantia Flexibles, said at the time, the investment will serve growing demand from the confectionery industry for film-based packaging.
“The Weiden site is our second largest production site globally and we have invested in many other areas namely R&D Competence Centre Films, and other converting equipment over the last few years,” he said.
“We have 53 sites globally but Weiden is the center for film products development. We have many gravure presses, flexo printing, embossing and foil lacquering at this site.”