Crown Cork & Seal and Enterprise Investors open a new packaging factory in Poland
Warsaw, 25 May 2001 — Crown Cork & Seal and Enterprise Investors today formally opened their new factory in Pruszcz Gdański. This greenfield development will replace the existing premises located in central Gdańsk with the most modern facilities.
The new factory is dedicated to the production of tinplate and aluminum food containers for the growing Polish food industry, and will offer fish and food packers the highest standards of metal packaging produced in the most modern conditions.
The investment in the new facility will exceed $10 million and provide direct employment for approx. 300 people (a level similar to the current number at Gdańsk). The transfer of manufacturing from Gdańsk is to be completed by the end of this year.
This is the latest phase in the development of Crown Cork & Seal’s food can business in Poland, which started in 1997 with the privatization of CarnaudMetalbox-Gopak in Goleniów and then continued with the acquisition of Fabryka Opakowań Blaszanych in Gdańsk in 2000, in partnership with Enterprise Investors, Poland’s premier private equity group. This development established Crown Cork & Seal as the largest supplier of metal food packaging both in Poland and within Central and Eastern Europe.
Crown Cork & Seal Company Inc. is the leading supplier of packaging products to consumer marketing companies around the world. The company produces a wide range of metal cans and plastic containers for the food, beverage, personal care, industrial and household markets. In 2000, Crown Cork & Seal generated net sales of $7.3 billion from 223 plants located in 51 countries. Its other manufacturing operations in the region are located in Hungary and Slovakia, where it directly employs approx. 500 people. Focusing on product development and technical support for customers, the company maintains research and development centers in the USA and in the UK.
Enterprise Investors is one of the largest foreign investors and the largest private equity group in the country and in CEE. EI has been active in Poland and the region since 1990. The four funds managed by Enterprise Investors – Polish Enterprise Fund IV, the Polish Enterprise Fund, Polish Private Equity Funds I & II, and the Polish–American Enterprise Fund – have invested almost $600 million in 80 companies across all economic sectors in Poland and Romania. EI funds plan to invest an additional $300 million within the next four years.