Closures manufacturer United Caps (Wiltz / Luxembourg; www.unitedcaps.com) is planning to build a new production site in Alençon / France. The plant in Normandy will be the company's ninth, with eight others in Europe and two planned extensions in the UK – see Plasteurope.com of 02.07.2018 – and Malaysia – see Plasteurope.com of 05.05.2017.

The company is working with the Communauté Urbaine d’Alençon and with Orne Développement on the purchase of 25,000 m² of land for the facility, with the first construction phase using 4,000 m². The EUR 12m project is expected to employ 15 people in two years.

In June 2018, the Luxembourg-based manufacturer put its expanded R&D centre in Messia / France into operation, with the goal of reducing the development time of new closures and lids.

United Caps is collaborating with trio-technik (Meinerzhagen / Germany; www.trio-technik.de) to improve the efficiency of production processes at its plant in Schwerin / Germany. The German company manufactures customised conveyor belts and automation systems. At the start of 2018, United Caps installed four new "AirMove" conveyor systems from trio-technik. Compared to a conventional conveyor system, the AirMove system takes up only about a third of the space and consumes 20% less energy, said Olivier Jaillot, chief manufacturing officer at United Caps.

The 10,000 m² plant in eastern Germany spans two production halls and supplies the German beverage market. Around 58 employees manufacture several billion plastic closures there annually. The closures come in sizes of 28 mm and 38 mm, for still and carbonated water, fruit juices and milk.