US packaging specialist Berry Global (Evansville, Indiana; www.berryglobal.com) said it expects to start production at its new manufacturing facility and healthcare ‘centre of excellence’ in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, as early as April this year.

The research and development centre will be launching up to seven new products and projects during 2023, ranging from dry-powder inhalers to plastics caps and closures.

Related: Berry makes tethered caps for Coca-Cola

Berry said it would be rolling out its Pneumohaler, a lightweight, breath-actuated, multidose inhaler dose counter, from the Bangalore site, while several new medical packaging products should be available for sampling with industrial prototypes from February.

Around 90% of the Bangalore facility’s electricity needs will be derived from wind and solar power.

Almost a year ago Berry opened a centre of excellence at its UK plastics recycling facility in Heanor to boost evaluation of the recyclate used in its Sustane polymers.

In a separate press release, Berry Global announced the retirement of Thomas Salmon as CEO and chairman of the board effective 31 December 2023. For his successor, the board is considering both internal and external candidates.

According to his own statements, the CEO leaves behind a company that “develops sustainable and innovative packaging” and is “also a pioneer in a phase of unprecedented challenges”.

Economically, however, the situation for the group, with around 46,000 employees in 265 factories and sales offices worldwide, is not entirely good. Turnover for FY 2021/22 (30 September) grew to USD 14.5 bn (previous year: USD 13.2 bn), half of which was generated in North America and another 35% in Europe. Operating profit, however, fell slightly to USD 2.1 bn (USD 2.19 bn) and missed the original forecast of USD 2.3 bn by a significant margin.