Plans for new and expanded facilities keep rolling in as packaging companies make investments that broaden their footprint. Here are some of the recent investment announcements — generally located in the central United States — that Packaging Dive has tracked over the last month.

• Eagle Flexible Packaging plans to construct a new $5 million, 52,000-square-foot facility in Waupun, Wisconsin. Much of the construction is expected to be complete by the end of this year, and the expansion could result in up to 40 new jobs. The Batavia, Illinois-based flexible packaging company has had a presence in Waupun since 2021.
• Genpak, which manufactures food service packaging, will spend $6.7 million to expand its facility in Scottsburg, Indiana, as it builds polystyrene operations. The funds cover equipment upgrades as well as investments such as employee training. Genpak estimates that 45 additional jobs will result by 2028. 
• International Paper will open a new, 900,000-square-foot box plant in Waterloo, Iowa. The plant will be about five times larger than IP’s existing one in the community, and the company expects to add 90 jobs. Construction is slated to begin this year, and startup is expected next year. The $260 million investment aligns with the company’s strategy to prioritize box plant investments and “completely reconfigure our box plant network” over the next few years, CEO Andy Silvernail said during the company’s Jan. 30 earnings call.
• Letica Corp., a subsidiary of Berry Global, announced a $27.8 million investment to expand its operations in Fulton County, Kentucky. It will add 45,000 square feet to its warehouse space, add new equipment and make upgrades to the existing building and machinery. The plastic container and lid facility’s expansion will create 15 jobs.
• Premier Packaging relocated its headquarters and production operations to an expanded facility in Memphis, Tennessee. The 500,000-square-foot facility allows Premier to better deliver primary and secondary contract packaging services to beverage and consumer goods manufacturers, the company said in a news release.
• Rev Copack, a beverage copackaging and secondary packaging solutions company, committed $3.1 million to more than double its manufacturing capacity in Pennsylvania. The company reportedly outgrew its existing facility and is relocating to a larger one, allowing it to scale from the current two production lines to at least four. The action could create more than 130 jobs.
• Serioplast, an Italy-based rigid plastic packaging producer, will invest more than $25.7 million to move into a 140,000-square-foot space in an existing industrial facility in Shenandoah County, Virginia. This will be the third U.S.-based plant for the company, joining sites in St. Louis and North Carolina. The project will create 45 jobs.
• TransPak held a grand opening for its new 300,000-square-foot campus in Manor, Texas. Up to 100 new jobs will be created at the facility near Austin, which specializes in packaging and crating for semiconductor equipment, among other functions.
• Unified2 Global Packaging Group, owned by The Kraft Group, is opening a new location in Ohio. The Massachusetts-based company’s secondary packaging portfolio includes substrates such as molded fiber, foam and wood. 

Other expansions

• Circularix, a manufacturer of recycled PET material, plans to begin operations at its new production facility in Ocala, Florida, by the end of this quarter. This is the company’s second facility, after opening one in Pennsylvania in 2023. This is intended to double production capacity, with each facility having the annual capacity to produce 55 million pounds of food-grade PCR pellets that can be used to make packaging.