The company manufactures packaging across the dairy, cereals, prepared meals, biscuits, confectionery, meat and ice cream sectors.
£40m investment plan
The facility, in Katowice, will include rotary flexographic and sheet-fed lithographic printing technologies, in-line functional barrier coating and gluing and finishing options.
Terry Cross, chairman, Delta Packaging, told FoodProductionDaily, it is the first time it has opened a factory in Poland as an expansion of its European supply network and it will serve The Baltic countries and those within the EU.
Earlier this year Delta Packaging announced a £40m investment plan, which will involve the construction of the factory in Gliwice, near Katowice in Poland. The company hopes the facility will be operational before the end of 2015,” he said.
“We will manufacture biodegradable, disposable fibre-based packaging for the retail food, food service, beverage, confectionery, household goods and electronic consumer product sectors.
“At present, 95% of our business is delivered outside our Northern Irish manufacturing base. The UK, Scandinavia, France, India, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal are key markets but it is envisaged this development will service clients in Central/Eastern Europe.”
Functional barriers & performance coatings
Cross added sustainability is a key aspect in packaging and there are some interesting developments within this area.
He said its research and development team is currently exploring functional barriers and performance coatings as well as packaging systems development, enhanced by bespoke production capabilities in the Belfast plant to support this.
In 2001, the company set up Delta Print & Packaging in Huabei, China, followed by Fancypak in 2003 North East of Beijing.
2010 saw Delta Packaging developing its Asian operations by entering into a manufacturing partnership in India with Stora Enso Inpac, where the business manufactures printed folding cartons, litho-laminated cartons and corrugated retail and transit packaging.
Cross said the firm is ‘very much in growth phase’ and will create and react to opportunities to enter into other markets.