For the first time in the past three years, there would appear to be hope for operations to continue at the film facility owned by Jindal Films (New Delhi; www.jindalfilms.com) in Terni, Italy.

The former Treofan site – the Indian Jindal group acquired its competitor in 2018 – was to be closed due to unprofitability in the same way as its sister facility in Battipaglia. Since 2020, Jindal has concentrated exclusively on the third Italian facility in Brindisi, and media reports state that Battipaglia has in the meantime been handed to Italian waste container manufacturer Jcoplastic (Battipaglia; www.jcoplastic.com).

Italian trade union Filctem-CGIL (www.filctemcgil.it) has now announced the facility’s forthcoming transfer to Polish film manufacturer Visopack (Torun; http://visopack.pl). Whether this involves just the sale and transfer of the means of production or whether the plant – as Filctem secretary Sergio Cardinali explained – will continue operating, remains unclear.

The information from Filctem states that an agreement has already been signed. Jindal did not respond to a Plasteurope.com enquiry by press time. Visopack managing director Michael Yanovski stressed that they were “not able to comment on the situation” at the moment. He did not, however, deny the statements put out by the trade union, which could indicate that they are in principle partially correct.

Filctem reports that a meeting is being held in the next few days under the leadership of the Ministry of Economic Affairs to negotiate the details of the agreement.

Related: Jindal films plans major expansion of film output in Italy

According to the trade union, production at Terni has been at a standstill for almost three years, with an unknown number of employees evidently carrying out the necessary maintenance.

Visopack produces biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films for use in packaging. The Brückner line, upgraded to five layers with a working width of 6.6 m, evidently came from the inventory of the former Treofan France in Mantes-la-Ville – later Polyfilms – and was initially installed at Mavilex at its Polish site Torun. Both Polyfilms and Mavilex have now disappeared from the market.

The line should have a capacity of 18,000 t/y to 20,000 t/y for producing BOPP films in a thickness of 15 to 60 microns. The products include not only standard packaging film but also backing films for adhesive tape and labels and films for metallisation.

Visopack managing director Yanovski is no stranger to the industry. He managed Treofan in the early 2000s and came to Visopack after holding posts at Biaxplen and Megalux Film.

With a total capacitiy of around 750,000 t/y Jindal is number three among the global leading BOPP film producers. In Europe, the Indian group ranks second in market share.