Irish plastic packaging company Quinn Packaging (Ballyconnell, County Cavan; www.quinn-packaging.com) is adding a PET sheet extrusion line at its site in Ballyconnell. The EUR 3m investment, which will allow Quinn to further develop its PET sheet and meat tray business, is part of the company’s strategy to become a major player in the rigid food packaging market. The line is expected to be fully commissioned in the middle of this year.

Austria’s SML Maschinen (Lenzing; www.sml.at) will supply the extrusion line, which features the „Vacurema" recycling system, a patented technology that allows the use of post-consumer or recycled PET bottle flake to make food-contact approved sheet. Mark McKenna, Quinn Packaging’s general manager, said the extra investment in the Vacurema system would give the company an advantage over many of its competitors by allowing it to replace virgin polymer with recycled material while still producing a higher quality PET sheet.

Quinn manufactures a range of plastic packaging, including rigid products for food (meat/poultry and ready meal trays, mushroom punnets, diary spread containers as well as thin gauge sheet for form, fill & seal applications), and flexible sheet for industrial and agricultural applications.