The acquisition by Sealed Air Shrink Packaging Division (Saddle Brook, New Jersey / USA, www.sealedair.com) of Italy´s Soten group (I-20017 Rho Milano; www.soten.it) on 31 September 2001 created a significantly enlarged product and manufacturing capability for the Sealed Air shrink films business in Europe. It marks a further expansion step following the March 1998 merger of Cryovac to create what was claimed to be the world´s leading protective and speciality packaging company with sales of more than USD 3 bn and 16,000 employees.

Established in 1990, Soten has a production capacity of 2,000 t/y for polyolefin and PVC shrink films at plants near Milan and at Manfredonia. Along with shrink film processing, Soten designs and manufactures blown film plant for shrink film production. Synergies between these two activities have enabled it to become an established player in the shrink film market within a relatively short time.

The Sealed Air group supplies flexible packaging materials, systems and equipment for both food and non-food applications. Prior to the Soten acquisition, the shrink packaging business was already increasing capacity through expansion of its plants in St. Neots (UK) and Epernon (France). As part of a consolidation move, the Cryovac ( www.cryovac.com) plant at Telford, Shropshire (UK) will be closed, starting in early April of this year. Some of the 120 staff will transfer to other sites. The facility was determined not to have the necessary critical mass.