Chesapeake Corp. begins construction on China plant

Chesapeake Corporation has begun construction on a pharmaceutical packaging plant near Shanghai that will supply paperboard cartons, labels and leaflets to domestic and multinational pharmaceutical customers.

The new 36,000-square-foot plant will complement and be built adjacent to Chesapeake’s existing plastic packaging plant in Kunshan and is expected to be operational by mid-2006. The company’s existing plant manufactures bottles for the pharmaceutical industry and recently became the first foreign-owned packaging facility to receive the 100,000 grade certification for its clean room operation from the State Food and Drug Administration in China.

‘Our new Kunshan paperboard packaging plant will enable us to provide the same quality packaging and anti-counterfeiting technology in Asia that we have been supplying for years to the world’s premiere pharmaceutical companies in Europe’, said Thomas H. Johnson, Chesapeake chairman and chief executive officer. ‘By combining paperboard carton, label and leaflet production capacity with our existing plastic packaging capability, we can now offer a one-stop service for primary and secondary pharmaceutical packaging. The pharmaceutical and healthcare industry is the largest that we serve, and this is another significant step in growing our business globally’.

Located approximately 28 miles from Shanghai, Chesapeake’s new plant will feature the latest technology and manufacturing equipment. Chesapeake Corporation’s Hong Kong-based subsidiary, Chesapeake Asia-Pacific Ltd, will operate the plant under the name Chesapeake Pharmaceutical & Healthcare Packaging (Kunshan) Co. Ltd. When the plant becomes fully operational it is expected to eventually employ approximately 150 people.

Once the plant begins operations, Chesapeake officials will seek several quality assurance certifications for the facility, primarily those pertinent to the pharmaceutical and healthcare market, including cGMP, PS 9000, and State Food and Drug Administration (China) certification.