British paper and packaging company DS Smith, London, has announced a €25m investment in its Polish production facilities in Kielce, Bełchatów and Sosnowiec.
The company has allocated €22m to the expansion of its packaging plant in Kielce, which has been equipped with new machinery for the production of solid laminated cardboard packaging solutions for the industrial and FMCG sectors. Among other things, DS Smith has installed a new Bobst Masterline 2.1 die-cutter, which will enable greater automation and precision of the production process in the flexo department, according to DS Smith.
At the packaging facility in Bełchatów, DS Smith installed a new production line for its Easy Bowl solution, a fibre-based alternative to plastic trays used for packaging fresh products such as meat, fish, meat substitutes and ready meals. The solution can reduce plastic use by up to 85 per cent compared to traditional plastic trays, and the new machinery is expected to increase line efficiency and capacity by around 24 million pieces per year.
The Sosnowiec plant has been equipped with machinery to produce sustainable and fibre-based paper bags for the e-commerce sector. These are an alternative to corrugated boxes, which some 40 per cent of consumers say are too large for their contents and use too much plastic tape.
The investment is expected to increase DS Smith's annual packaging capacity in Poland by approximately 25 million m² and its glued box capacity by 7.5 million m².
