US liquid-packaging manufacturer Liquibox (Richmond, Virginia; www.liquibox.com) formally opened a new flexible-packaging factory in Madrid / Spain in December 2020 with a capacity aimed to meet increasing demand for bag-in-box and bulk products in continental Europe. The factory will more than triple Liquibox’s manufacturing capacity in the region while also expanding the types and sizes of flexible bags it can offer to a market where growth of large packaging formats is escalating due to Covid-19.

The new site features a cleanroom and has more than 1,200 m² of dedicated production space. It will have 16 bag-making machines, with additional warehouse capacity.

What Liquibox does not say in the press release, however, is that in order to equip the new plant in Madrid, machines from the production facility in Schwetzingen / Germany will also be relocated. The German plant will be shut down in April 2021, and 95 employees will lose their jobs. The business unit in Schwetzingen manufactures plastic beads that are mainly used in the beverage industry and for chemical applications. The PE and PET films used in the process are bought additionally. Liquibox had acquired the plant last year through the takeover of the plastic packaging division of DS Smith (London / UK; www.dssmith.com; see Plasteurope.com of 09.03.2020).