Created in the wake of the May merger of five leading European and North American packaging producers, Exopack Holdings (Spartanburg, South Carolina / US; www.exopack.com) has changed its name to Coveris (www.coveris.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 06.05.2013. The company, owned by US private equity company Sun Capital Partners (Boca Raton, Florida; www.suncappart.com), consists of the former Exopack, UK's Britton Group (Winsford; www.brittongroup.com), Germans Kobusch (Warburg; www.kobusch.com) and Paccor (Zell; www.paccor.com) as well as Paragon Print & Packaging (Spalding / UK; www.paragonprintandpackaging.com).

According to Coveris, it is now the world’s sixth-largest packaging producer, with sales of roughly USD 2.5 bn, 64 plants as well as 8,650 employees. Its activities focuse on two areas: global flexibles and global rigid.

Coveris has implemented a new organisational structure to optimise delivery of service to global customers. The Global Flexibles business, headed by CEO Michael Cronin, is now organised in two markets, Europe and North America, with three main product lines: Food & Consumer, Industrials and Advanced Coatings. The Global Rigid business, which specialises in solutions for dimensionally stable plastics and paper packaging, is now organised by geographic markets serving mainly customers in Europe. Dieter Bergner, CEO of the Global Rigid business, said all of the employees were moving together, "focusing on what is important."