The Finnish-Dutch packaging group Huhtamaki Van Leer Oy (HQ: FIN-02101 Espoo) – for details, see Plasteurope.com 05, 2000 – has agreed to sell its technical films and coatings business units in Houston, Texas / USA and Essen, Belgium, to Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW, 3600 West Lake Avenue, Glenview, Illinois 60025-5811/USA) for around EUR 100m. The transaction is a consequence of Huhtamaki Van Leer´s desire to focus on its core consumer packaging operations.

The two business units employ a total of 350 people and are leading suppliers of high-performance plastic strength films such as “Valeron” and “Valcross”. These cross-laminated films are used, for example, in agriculture, in the construction industry and in the chemical and printing industries.

ITW is a multinational technology conglomerate with net sales in excess of USD 9bn and a presence in 40 countries through more than 500 production units. With its highly diversified product portfolio, ITW supplies plastic and metal components, fasteners and assembly components, tools, marking and labelling equipment and systems and supplies for consumer and industrial packaging. ITW took over the Premark International group in 1999, to which, among others, the world´s leading laminate sheet and coating giant, Wilsonart International, belongs. The European headquarters of Wilsonart is, in turn, the well known Resopal GmbH (D-64823 Groß-Umstadt) – see Plasteurope.com 15, 2000.