As part of a group-wide rationalisation strategy alluded to by Amcor CEO Ron Delia in June this year, Amcor Flexibles has announced to internal and external stakeholders its plan to implement a phased closure of its Nunawading facility in Melbourne, Victoria.
PKN spoke to Amcor Flexibles' Andrew Terry about the move. He said the decision, taken following a strategic operations review, will see a transition of production and some coworkers across the company's Australian footprint.
The move will be supported by investment in a new gravure press with in-line lamination to support Amcor Flexibles' existing customer base, which has specific requirements for cold seal laminates that the new technology will support.
The press is expected to be on-stream in Q3 of calendar 2017 and will provide the division with the capacity to fully close the Nunawading facility before the expiry of the current lease on the facility in June 2018.
Back in June, Ron Delia said footprint optimisation, to better align capacity with demand, increase utilisation and improve the cost base, would accelerate the pace of adapting the organisation within developed markets.
"This will likely result in the restructuring or closure of several plants in developed markets," Delia said.
In other news, Amcor has announced the closure of its cigarette packaging facility in Bristol, UK with 75 employees made redundant.
Amcor cited "the challenging economic environment, wherein tax pressure coupled with illegal trade has resulted in declining industry volumes in Europe" as a reason for the proposed closure.
Amcor said plain packaging legislation has further compounded these factors. The UK and Ireland have passed legislation which saw plain packaging introduced from 20 May this year, with France to follow suit on 1 January 2017.
