Bioplastics compounder Cereplast (El Segundo, California / USA; www.cereplast.com) has, as previously announced, purchased a site with existing buildings in the Italian town of Assisi - see Plasteurope.com of 09.05.2011. The cost of the 11,500 m² site, which is located around 150 km to the north of Rome, and the subsequent reconstruction work will cost approximately EUR 12m.

The plant will be operated by the company's wholly owned subsidiary Cereplast Italia, and is scheduled to go on stream at the end of 2012 with an initial capacity of 50,000 t/y bioplastic compounds. CEO Frederic Scheer aims to raise output if possible to 100,000 t/y by mid-2013. When fully operational, the Umbria region expects the new project to create 150 new jobs.

Cereplast's sales target for 2011 is an ambitious USD 24-32m. In 2010, the company posted sales of USD 6.3m (2009: USD 2.7m) and a net loss of USD 7.5m (USD 6.1m). The sales growth was essentially due to an increase in volume sales in the second half of the year.