Metal packaging firm to build plant in Pennsylvania

The North American aluminum can market will have a new player if Poland-based Canpack S.A. follows through on plans to build a 900,000 facility near Scranton, Pennsylvania.

In Europe, Canpack does not operate melt shops to make aluminum can sheet but instead engages in downstream activities including the production of finished and printed aluminum cans, tin-plated steel cans, aerosol cans and metal closures for bottles. The company says it has 8,000 employees in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf says Canpack will redevelop a former brownfield site in Lackawanna County, which includes Scranton as its largest city. At the site, Canpack will establish “an aluminum can manufacturing facility and North American Center of Excellence,” according to a press release issued by the governor’s office.

Canpack’s commitment includes the acquisition and demolition of an existing 1 million-square-foot facility on what the governor calls a 102-acre brownfield site. There, it will establish a 900,000-square-foot aluminum can manufacturing facility and operations center that also will include “a customer experience center portraying Canpack’s R&D and lithographic capabilities.”

“Canpack is known throughout the world for its manufacturing strength, and we are thrilled that the company has chosen Pennsylvania for its entry into North America,” says Wolf. “This company is making a historic investment in Lackawanna County, creating good-paying jobs for hundreds of Pennsylvanians, putting an abandoned brownfield site into productive use, and creating additional revenue for the local community.”

“We are extremely excited to bring Canpack into the United States, the world’s largest aluminum beverage can market,” says Peter Giorgi, president and CEO of Pennsylvania-based Giorgi Global Holdings Inc., of which Canpack is a portfolio company.

“Investing in the conversion of a brownfield site to a state-of-the-art aluminum can manufacturing facility and operations center, which creates local jobs and benefits the community, is consistent with Canpack’s focus on sustainability and being a responsible corporate citizen that gives back to the local community,” says Roberto Villaquiran, CEO of Canpack.

In the sustainability section of its website, Canpack lists several recycling-related aspects of its operations, including:

• the design and manufacture of fully recyclable packaging;
• cooperation with suppliers to increase the share of recycled content in the raw materials the company uses;
• having a goal of disposing of zero waste in landfills; and
• seeking to improve recycling rates through collection of used beverage cans (UBCs) and “supporting regulators and the waste management industry, as well as running and supporting educational programs targeting packaging end users.”