The 1995 merger of CarnaudMetalbox SA (CMB, 153 rue de Courcelles, F-75817 Paris Cedex 17) with Crown Cork & Seal Company Inc (9300 Ashton Road, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19136, USA) created a new market leader in packaging with 52,000 employees and annual sales of IJSD 10bn. At 350 sites worldwide, the merged company Crown/CarnaudMetalbox manufactures products for the food and beverage, pharmceuticals, cosmetics, industrial and household goods sectors. Business is distributed geographically among the Americas, Europe and Asia, while plastics are managed centrally.

The two plastics-specialised R&D centres at Alsip, near Chicago, and the Wantage centre in the UK focus on "innovative solutions" in metal and plastics packaging for international customers. At the recent "Interpack" packaging exhibition in Düsseldorf / Germany, the group showed for food applications PET bottles that can be washed at temperatures up to 75° C, along with high gloss bottles with increased transaprency for sauces and dairy products. For the cosmetics industry, Crown/CarnaudMetalbox has developed PET perfume bottles with neckpieces of ABS and caps moulded in PP, PET or the speciality plastic "Surlyn".

READER SERVICE: CMB client publication "The World", No 3/May 1996 (English): PIE-No. 39541.