CCL Industries, a world leader in labelling and specialty packaging solutions for the consumer products and healthcare industries, has announced that it plans to invest $30m during 2011 and 2012 to expand its CCL Label operations in emerging markets. The company will build three new greenfield plants and also invest in additional capacity at some of its existing facilities.

A new third plant in Bangkok, Thailand, will provide increased capacity and new technologies to support home and personal care (HPC) and beverage customers in South-East Asia. CCL expects its Asian operations to approach 10% of global label revenues in 2012. Construction has also commenced on a new pressure-sensitive label facility in Vinhedo near Sao Paulo to support HPC and healthcare customers in Brazil. The new site will more than double the size of existing operations. Additional converting capacity will also be added to the Brazilian sleeve plant in Criciuma to support rapid growth in the food and beverage sector. Finally, the Pacman-CCL joint venture will open a new greenfield plant in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this fall to expand the company’s footprint in the Gulf States of the Middle East.

Geoffrey Martin, president and CEO of CCL Industries, said: "Emerging market revenues now represent approximately 20% of the company’s total sales and we expect growth to continue to accelerate at a premium to the developed world in the coming years as our customers invest to drive improvement in consumers’ lives in these regions. It therefore makes both strategic and shareholder value sense to allocate a higher portion of capital to these geographies. Despite this investment we do not expect overall expenditures to exceed depreciation company-wide in either 2011 or 2012."

With headquarters in Toronto, Canada, CCL Industries now employs approximately 6,000 people and currently operates 63 production facilities globally located to meet the sourcing needs of large international companies. CCL Label is the world’s largest converter of pressure-sensitive and film materials and sells to leading global customers in the consumer packaging, healthcare, and consumer durable segments. CCL Container and CCL Tube produce aluminum cans, bottles and plastic tubes for the consumer products industry in North America.