UFlex Limited, a global manufacturer of polymer sciences, continues to take steps to expand its customer base. The company has commissioned its BOPET film manufacturing plant in the Ogun State of Nigeria with a production capacity of 45,000 TPA.

Spread over 37 acres, the plant houses a 10.6 meter wide BOPET film line, which the company says is the first of its kind in Africa, and also has two metalizers with a total production of 15,000 TPA. The plant that created over 200 direct jobs is set to cater to the packaging film demand coming from the fast growing economy of Nigeria, ECOWAS (Western Africa) and the USA.

In the quarter July-August-September 2021, UFlex also added a fleet of new value-added products and solutions products to its portfolio that not just help its customers’ products stand out on the retail shelves but also help brands extend an overall elevated packaging and consumption experience.

In addition, UFlex has launched new products to meet market demand. To boost its flexible packaging business, UFlex has unveiled a new High Barrier Mono-material Recyclable Bag for Snack Packaging. Snacks form a quick bite to keep on-the-go hunger at bay, and its packaging undergoes frequent changes to retain consumer interest and make it convenient for them. In order to make the brands stay relevant, as well as sustainable in the snacks segment, the flexible packaging business of UFlex has developed a heavy-duty mono-material bag for Danish brand KIMS for its snacks packaging segment for the European market. The high-barrier packaging is made of mono-material under polypropylene extreme and bears recyclable “logo 5” mark, enabling easy recycling in the existing polypropylene recycling streams while ensuring that the snack packed remains fresh as ever. These snack packs are being used by KIMS to pack food products such as chips, wafers and more.

Meanwhile, UFlex has released its new MOPE-based Monopolymer Recyclable Bag for large quantity rice packaging for EBRO. UFlex has developed a new MOPE/PE recyclable structure with registered matte coating and special PE monopolymer-based laminate film for EBRO rice brand Peacock. The newly developed structure for rice packaging possesses similar mechanical and other properties allowing easy recyclability of PE in conventional extruder and can be easily run on existing packaging line with minor adjustments.

This development has cleared all tests related to handling, post filling of the pack content, and has successfully fulfilled required barrier properties throughout the defined shelf life of the packed rice, thus positioning itself as a suitable packaging application for large quantities.