Huhtamäki to boost growth in its Flexible Packaging business segment

The largest of the new units will be located in the greater Cairo area in Egypt. The state-of-the-art manufacturing unit in Egypt will be owned and operated as a joint venture, of which Huhtamäki owns 75 percent. The remaining 25 percent is owned by Huhtamäki’s Egyptian joint venture partner, Ayman Korra. The total investment including the land purchase, the first phase of the facility construction, machinery and utilities is expected to be approximately 23 million EUR (25 million USD). The majority of the investment is expected to take place in 2016-2017. Manufacturing at the facility is scheduled to begin during 2018, and will serve both global and local flexible packaging customers. Currently Huhtamäki serves flexible packaging customers in Egypt from its operations in the UAE and India.

Establishing a manufacturing base in Egypt marks Huhtamaki’s first steps in manufacturing flexible packaging in Africa, a market offering ‘sizable future growth opportunities’, according to Huhtamäki CEO Jukka Moisio. His colleague Olli Koponen, executive vice president of Huhtamäki’s Flexible Packaging business segment, added: ‘We're excited to expand our manufacturing network into Africa. We will replicate the state-of-the-art solutions from our newest unit in the UAE, and look forward to servicing new and current customers with efficiently produced top quality flexible packaging.’

To better service customers operating in north-east India, a new flexible packaging manufacturing unit will be set up in the state of Assam and a label manufacturing unit in the state of Sikkim. Both units are expected to begin operations during the first half of 2017. In addition, a label manufacturing unit operating in the Greater Mumbai Region will be relocated to a new state of art facility in order to gain room for growth.

The relocation to the new facility is expected to be completed by the end of 2017. The combined value of these growth investments in India is expected to be approximately 9 million EUR (10 million USD) and they are expected to take place in 2016-2017. 

‘With the investments in India we will further improve our geographic coverage of the country and our ability to service customers in food and pharma industries,’ commented Moisio. ‘After these additions our total number of manufacturing units in India grows to 17.’