When Salzgitter (Salzgitter / Germany; www.salzgitter-ag.de) acquired SIG Beverages from packaging manufacturer SIG (Neuhausen / Switzerland; www.sig.biz) in mid-January 2008 it also took over SIG Plasmax (Hamburg / Germany; www.valueaddedbottling.com). In addition, the deal included the PET bottle stretch blow moulding technology, which is the core business of SIG Corpoplast (Hamburg / Germany), and SIG Asbofill – see Plasteurope.com of 17.01.2008. The acquisitions posted combined sales of around EUR 150m in 2007 with a workforce of 480. The companies agreed not to disclose financial details of the deal. The Plasmax transaction was closed at the start of April as the purchaser first had to “clarify some issues" according to SIG.

Saltzgitter intends to continue to develop Plasmax technology to speed up commercialisation. A spokesman for the company told PIE: "Plasmax is a highly attractive technology that can greatly improve the barrier properties of PET bottles”. This new process is only just coming onto the market and revenues are still low. However, Salzgitter expects sales to run into double-digit millions in the future. The company says it has now established the right conditions for successful ongoing development and production.