Austrian packaging group Alpla (Hard; www.alpla.com) said it plans to erect a new injection moulding plant in the US city of Kansas City, Missouri; 75 jobs are expected to be created for the 23,000 m² site at the Blue River Commerce Center. No financial details of the investment were disclosed.

“We are excited about our new Kansas City site, which represents a key element of our growth strategy and our continued commitment to the expansion of our injection moulding capabilities," Alpla North America MD James Rooney said.

The new facility in Kansas City is Alpla’s fourth in the state of Missouri and the first to be exclusively for injection moulding. The company plans to produce packaging systems, bottles, closures and other injection-moulded parts for a variety of industries at the site.

US commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield (Chicago, Illinois; www.cushmanwakefield.com) is to lead the development of the facility, with construction expected to run from late 2021 to Q4 2022.

In Europe, Alpla recently increased its coverage in the area around the Mediterranean Sea, with the acquisition of Spanish processor Plastisax (Sax; www.plastisax.com/en – see Plasteurope.com of 27.09.2021) and expanded its recycling division through takeovers and joint ventures (see Plasteurope.com of 07.10.2021).

At the beginning of this year, the packaging group, which reported sales of EUR 3.7 bn in 2020, announced that it would invest an average of EUR 50m annually in the further expansion of recycling activities, until 2025 (see Plasteurope.com of 24.02.2021). The group said it employs more than 21,600 people at 178 production sites in 45 countries.