Christel Bories, chief executive of Alcan Packaging, said the new plant would supply printed packaging material to Spanish, Portuguese and locally-based multinational customers. Roughly half of Alcan Packaging's 180 plants are located in Europe, and last year the company invested $204 million in the region.
The company's flexible packaging range for the pharmaceutical industry includes child-resistant blister packaging, blister lidding, thermoforming films, high-barrier Formpack laminates, pouches/sachets, laminates for strip packs and suppositories, sterilisable lidding for medical devices and tube laminates. It also offers contract packaging services and plastic packaging items.
Alcan has been in the throes of a major restructuring exercise in Europe, including the closure and downsizing of a number of plants last year. This effort encompassed a pharmaceutical workshop facility in Froges, France, and stems in from the acquisition of France's Pechiney, a specialist in pharmaceutical and food packaging, at the end of 2003.
Bories said: "The production activity at Alcan Packaging Alzira complements our global pharmaceutical production network and allows us to provide integrated packaging solutions to the entire industry."