Stock Symbol: TSX - CCL.A and CCL.B
TORONTO, June 17 /CNW/ - CCL Industries Inc., a world leader in specialty packaging solutions for the consumer products and healthcare industries, announced today that it plans to invest $25 million over 2008 and 2009 to expand its CCL Label operations in the rapidly developing Asian region. The Company began doing business in Asia five years ago with its 2003 investment in Bangkok, Thailand which has subsequently undergone two expansions. In 2006 and 2007 CCL invested in additional operations in Guangzhou and Hefei in China. At the current pace, sales in Asia will reach approximately $40 million in 2008.
The Company announced that it will build four new greenfield plants and also expand some of its existing facilities in the region. A second new plant in Bangkok, Thailand will produce beverage and battery label products for South East Asia and Australia. CCL will enter Vietnam with a new facility in Ho Chi Minh City, focused on personal care products. A new start-up in Pune, India will focus on personal care and healthcare customers and a new greenfield site in Tianjin will become the Company's first healthcare plant in China as well as produce labels for personal care customers. Investments will also be made to expand the capability of the Hefei, China plant to supply home and personal care products to global customers located in the important Shanghai region. The Company's sales and technical centre in Japan will be expanded to become a pilot manufacturing facility for personal care labels.
Geoffrey Martin, President and CEO of CCL Industries said, "All of our existing operations in Asia are now solidly profitable and we have formed an excellent team of local managers who have ambition to grow. Emerging market sales now represent approximately 17% of our Label business but we would like to see that grow to 30% in the next three to five years to be more closely aligned with the sales of our important global customers. This would require us to more than double the size of our existing presence in Asia. We believe the highly successful organic growth model that we have deployed in this region should be continued, at least for our core markets and will provide increased benefits to our customers and shareholders."
With headquarters in Toronto, Canada, CCL Industries now employs approximately 5,400 people and currently operates 55 production facilities in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. CCL Label is the world's largest converter of pressure sensitive and film materials and sells to leading global customers in the consumer packaging, healthcare, and consumer durable segments. CCL Container and CCL Tube produce aluminum cans, bottles and plastic tubes for the consumer products industry in North America.
Statements contained in this Press Release, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements subject to a number of uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from some statements made.