Novembal France (Les Cheres, F-69480 Anse), a plastic closures subsidiary of the multinational Tetra Pak group (HQ: CH-1009 Pully/Lausanne; www.tetrapak.com), is restructuring its two production sites. The Châteaubriant plant in Loire-Atlantique with 130 employees will concentrate on small and medium-sized series in future, while the main site at Cheres, near Lyon, with 200 employees, will focus on large production runs. The group, which implemented similar measures in Spain in 2000, cites the need to reduce its logistics costs – its main customers (which include Evian) are located in southeastern France. Tetra Pak hopes to make Novembal France, which it acquired in 1999, into a profitable company. In 1999 and 2000 the group invested almost EUR 22m in France, where plastic closures are currently running up losses. Efforts are focusing primarily on Cheres.

Châteaubriant is taking on production of the “spin cap”. This new type of closure is one of the latest Tetra Pak packaging innovations launched in response to customer demand and the increased need for tamper-proof food packaging, in particular in beverage cartons. This plant already manufactures a similar product for competitor Besnier.

Novembal France is part of Tetra Pak Closures, which belongs to the plastics arm of the originally Swedish group. It operates nine facilities worldwide, including five in Europe. The company has around 600 employees and reported sales of EUR 91.5m in 2001, including EUR 52m in France.