The expansion doubles the Nigel plant’s capacity to offer sustainable glass packaging to meet the current and anticipated demand growth of the company’s customers
Ardagh Glass Packaging - Africa to expand Nigel production facility in Gauteng, South Africa. (Credit: Ardagh Group S.A.)
Ardagh Glass Packaging – Africa (AGP – Africa) has commissioned a $95m expansion of its Nigel production facility in Gauteng, South Africa.
The expansion project involved the installation of a new furnace and manufacturing lines.
It doubles the plant’s capacity to offer sustainable glass packaging to meet the current and anticipated demand growth of the company’s customers.
The extension also offers environmental, energy, and water efficiency benefits.
It also represents an important step in the company’s efforts to decarbonise the glass manufacturing process and lower emissions in the areas where it operates.
The company said that the move will strengthen the government’s goals for economic recovery and the project will create jobs in Ekurhuleni.
The extension has created over 150 direct jobs and ancillary supply-chain expenditures.
AGP – Africa CEO Paul Curnow said: “We are proud to commission this significant capacity investment, which supports strong demand from our customers for sustainable, premium glass packaging.
“Completion of this project, on time and budget despite the Covid-19 and supply chain challenges of the past two years, represents a tremendous achievement by our technical and operational teams.
“The outlook for premium, sustainable glass packaging remains positive and AGP – Africa expects to continue to invest in support of future market growth.”
Ardagh Group chairman and CEO Paul Coulson said: “Demand for sustainable packaging in Africa is growing strongly, supported by multiple factors, including rising income levels, growing sustainability awareness, favourable demographics and a shift to one-way packaging.
“We are committed to investing in our people and our asset base to enable us to serve this strong demand growth over the near term.”
Last month, Ardagh Metal Packaging announced that it is investing to expand its manufacturing facility in La Ciotat, France.