Rexam has formed a joint venture with a quoted Indian company, the Hindustan Tin Works, (HTW) to start up a 450m can/year beverage can plant in Mumbai.
Rexam will initially invest £7m for a 51% stake. The factory should begin production in the final quarter of this year, focussing predominantly on the beer market. The plant will eventually produce three-piece food cans as well as 330ml and 500ml beverage cans.
Rexam says the Indian beverage market is forecast to grow at 6% annually in the next three years, “driven by a fast-growing young population and substantial middle-class growth, allied to further urbanisation and a developing supermarket culture”.
The company simultaneously announced it is to buy Truepack, a plastic packaging manufacturer for the pharmaceutical sector, which makes eye, ear and oral dropper bottles, nasal spray bottles and tamper-evident closure systems at its factory in Bangalore. The purchase price is £5m. Rexam ceo Lars Emilson says: “These deals are further evidence of our strategy to extend our business into emerging markets.”