CCL Industries has announced that it will invest US$25 million over 2008 and 2009 to expand its CCL Label operations in Asia. The company began doing business in Asia five years ago with its 2003 investment in Bangkok, Thailand, which has subsequently undergone two expansions. In 2006 and 2007, CCL invested in additional operations in Guangzhou and Hefei in China. At the current pace, sales in Asia will reach approximately US$40 million in 2008, says Geoffrey Martin, president and CEO.

The company announced that it will build four new greenfield plants and also expand some of its existing facilities in the region. A second new plant in Bangkok will produce beverage and battery label products for Southeast Asia and Australia. CCL will enter Vietnam with a new facility in Ho Chi Minh City, focused on personal care products. A new startup in Pune, India, will focus on personal care and healthcare customers, and a new greenfield site in Tianjin will become the company’s first healthcare plant in China, as well as produce labels for personal care customers. Investments will also be made to expand the capability of the Hefei, China, plant to supply home and personal care products to global customers located in the Shanghai region. CCL’s sales and technical center in Japan will be expanded to become a pilot manufacturing facility for personal care labels.

“All of our existing operations in Asia are now solidly profitable and we have formed an excellent team of local managers who have ambition to grow,” says Martin. “Emerging market sales now represent approximately 17 percent of our label business, but we would like to see that grow to 30 percent in the next three to five years to be more closely aligned with the sales of our important global customers. This would require us to more than double the size of our existing presence in Asia. We believe the highly successful organic growth model that we have deployed in this region should be continued, at least for our core markets, and will provide increased benefits to our customers and shareholders.”

Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, CCL Industries employs 5,400 people and operates 55 production facilities in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. CCL Label is the world’s largest converter of pressure sensitive and film materials and sells to global customers in the consumer packaging, healthcare, and consumer durable segments.