Austrian packaging giant Greiner Packaging International (GPI, Kremsmünster; www.greiner-gpi.com) has strengthened its network in Romania by acquiring a majority of the shares in local plastic packaging producer Amplast (Leresti / Romania; www.amplast.ro). Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

In fact, the Austrian group is already represented in Romania, where it operates a container and FMCG packaging facility in Sibiu, located northwest of Amplast’s headquarters. GPI said it plans to adapt the newly acquired Leresti site for its Assistec technical parts division and hopes to develop the local market for technical plastics products from here. The new site also allows GPI to handle more labour-intensive offers from its global clientele, which it so far had supplied mostly from the Far East.

Amplast is specialised in foil extrusion and thermoforming as well as injection moulding. The group’s 227 employees posted revenues of a little more than EUR 7m in 2010. Its product portfolio comprises a whole range of plastic packaging from food and drink to technical devices.