SOUTH AFRICA – Africa’s paper and packaging product manufacturing giant, Nampak has officially launched its Liquid Carton divisions’ new Technical Hub in Roodepoort, Johannesburg.
The new plant complements Nampak’s existing liquid carton facilities, which include a sales office in Bryanston, Gauteng; a printing plant in Isithebe, KwaZulu-Natal; a research and development (R&D) facility in Cape Town, and sister carton producing plants in both Malawi and Zambia.
Following renewed popularity and rising demand for liquid cartons, Nampak says the new Technical Hub was custom built to maintain, and service the growing pool of liquid carton filling machines for the food and beverage industry, such as dairy, water and fruit juice.
In one of his last official acts before leaving to head up Eskom, Nampak CEO André De Ruyter unveiled the new hub, cutting the ribbon during the facility’s opening ceremony.
Andre De Ruyter, stated that, “By shifting to carton, companies are enjoying benefits, such as a revitalised look and feel of their products, while being environmentally-friendly.”
“With the world becoming more environmentally aware, and companies looking for sustainable packaging alternatives, Nampak Liquid Cartons is perfectly positioned for take-off. The future looks bright for Nampak Liquid Cartons with the opening of our new Technical Hub,” concluded De Ruyter.
Nampak, has appointed Erik Smuts as the new group CEO following the resignation of Andre de Ruyter who will be taking up the post of embattled power utility Eskom boss.
Erik Smut has taken over as CEO on January 15, 2019. He joined Nampak Bevcan in 1997 as project accountant and was in 2001 appointed to the divisional board as commercial director.
On 1 April 2014, he was appointed as group executive responsible for Nampak’s beverage can interests in South Africa, Angola and Nigeria.
The former chartered accountant, having more than 22 years of experience in the manufacturing and packaging industry, holds a BCom (Acc) Hons, CA(SA) and ACMA (UK).
He has participated in the Advanced Management Programme at the Harvard Business School and the Global Executive Development Programme at the Gordon Institute of Business Science.
