The firm, which is now owned by The Sterling Group, manufactures bag-in-box flexible packaging and pouches for dairy, beverage and bulk food including fountain beverage syrup, milkshake mix, coffee drinks and pumpable liquid foods such as concentrates and sauces. Customers include The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo.
F&B and dairy
The factory started production this week and will initially serve customers in the F&B and dairy industry.
Paul Kase, VP marketing and strategy, Liqui-Box, told FoodProductionDaily.com it wanted to serve its customers in Asia Pacific more effectively and Taizhou has convenient access to the Shanghai port, Nanjing, and the G2 high-speed way.
“We closed a facility in Shenzhen last year, because we wanted to get into the right spot, and the market we wanted to serve. We relocated to be closer to our customers and suppliers,” he said.
“This is our only plant in Asia Pacific and after Liqui-Box was sold to The Sterling Group in 2011 we moved our HQ from Ohio, US, to Richmond in Virginia this year.”
Liqui-Box Corp. chose Richmond partially because some members of its executive management team were commuting from the area to its former headquarters in suburban Columbus, Ohio.
China expansion
Kase said expanding the company’s manufacturing footprint in China is an important part of its long term growth strategy.
“We don’t deal with the retail sector, more the food service industry with dairy, bottlers and food processors; products such a syrups for Coca-Cola and Pepsi, or food packaging for bulk food like mango or tomato paste,” he added.
"Some of it is aseptic and some of it is non-aseptic in bag-in-box sizes from 1 to 370 gallons (3.8 to 1400 liters)."
“The Asia Pacific market is growing rapidly and so is the demand for flexible packaging as it is a more sustainable type of packaging versus non-flexible packaging and it is more cost effective to transport. We are currently looking for opportunities to open another factory in China.”
He added the 120,000 sq ft factory in Taizhou was a multi-million dollar investment and will employ 30 people in manufacturing.
Liqui-Box also produces pouches and rigid plastic water bottles. The company's product offering includes consumables, such as fitment bags and pouch films, as well as filling machines.