DS Smith has announced plans to invest £100 million in two new packaging sites in Italy and Poland to meet increased customer demand.
The new facilities, located in Belchatov in Poland and Castelfranco Emilia in Italy, are expected to boost the local economy.
The initiative supports the company’s ambitious plans for further organic growth.
Earlier this month, the company said that the boost from the holiday season to its packaging business continued into 2021, with more people shopping online, while there were also signs of recovery in demand from its industrial customers.
The cardboard maker, which supplies packaging products to Amazon, Nestlé and Unilever, also said it was expecting to deliver annual results in line with its expectations.
State-Of-The-Art Facilities
The state-of-the-art facilities will incorporate new manufacturing technology, innovation and sustainable performance, the company added.
It will provide the much-needed capacity to meet growing needs for sustainable paper-based packaging and e-commerce requirements in the traditional food and drinks markets.
It is also well positioned to respond to market requirements for products that offer alternatives to single-use plastic with increased focus on recyclable, paper-based packaging.
In December of last year, the company resumed dividend payments and said demand for packaging material had rebounded due to a surge in online shopping amid COVID-19 curbs.
DS Smith declared an interim dividend for of 4 pence per share, months after it said it would not do so due to pandemic-related uncertainties.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
