A little more than a month after announcing it has completed the acquisition of Alcan Packaging (Paris / France; www.alcanpackaging.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 05.02.2010 – Australian packaging giant Amcor (Abbotsford; www.amcor.com) has rebranded its PET Packaging division as Amcor Rigid Plastics. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan / USA, Amcor Rigid Plastics consists of the former Amcor PET Packaging, the plastics closures joint venture Bericap North America and Alcan pharmaceutical’s plastic container unit.

Amcor says the Alcan deal not only complements its existing plastics packaging business, it also opens up new applications, materials and processes – in the pharmaceutical sector especially.

As part of the takeover, Amcor has absorbed 800 former Alcan employees who engage in stretch-blow moulding, extrusion-blow moulding, injection-blow moulding and multi-material processing in the US plants located in Millville (New Jersey), DesPlaines (Illinois), Bethlehem (Pennsylvania), Youngsville (North Carolina) as well as a plant in Cayey / Puerto Rico and Diadema / Brazil.