CANPACK Group brings a $150M Greenfield investment to Colombia

2019-12-13, CANPACK Group

The opening event was attended by Rafał Kos, Counselor of the President of Poland; Mr. Peter F. Giorgi, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Giorgi Global Holdings, Inc., owner of the CANPACK Group; Fernando Jaramillo, Legal Vice President and Corporate Affairs at Bavaria; Roberto Villaquiran, CANPACK Group CEO along with the CANPACK Group’s leadership team.

“Following the increased demand for sustainable and innovative aluminium packaging, the CANPACK Group has decided to accelerate its expansion into the South American market. This investment has been founded upon a strong and trust-based relationship we have established with AB InBev. We are looking forward to expanding our business operations in Colombia as we see great potential for growth within the Colombian market,” said Peter F. Giorgi, President and CEO of Giorgi Global Holdings, Inc., owner of the CANPACK Group.

“Our great task to transform Colombia into a country even more committed to sustainable development requires the support of strategic partners to help us to accomplish this purpose. For this reason, we have selected CANPACK as one of our partners to leverage their experience and alignment with our sustainable development objectives. The goal we have set for 2025 is to ensure that 100% of our packaging are recyclable or made from recycled materials. We are sure that the close cooperation with CANPACK will help us to achieve this ambitious goal,” said Marcel Regis, President at Bavaria.

With a built area of approximately 75,000 m2 and more than 200 direct employees CANPACK is the first ever producer in Colombia with the ability to deliver not only standard can sizes for the local market: 330ml or 355ml, but also unique can formats such as 269ml and 473ml. The new facility is designed to deliver an annual production capacity of more than 1.3 billion cans, expandable to 1.9 billion depending on the business needs. While Colombia will be the major market, cans produced in the Tocancipa facility will also be exported to neighbouring countries.

“Today, aluminium packaging is the preferred way to package goods. This is not only due to its sustainability and contribution to the global circular economy, but also due to the possibilities it offers in terms of branding and protection of the product. With this investment, we hope to create “can do” moments for consumers, whilst contributing to a cleaner and more sustainable environment,” said Roberto Villaquiran, CANPACK Group CEO.

“Thanks to the company’s expertise and the team effort of more than 2,000 people involved in this 18-month long investment project we believe that our plant will serve as a worldwide standard for safety and quality, a world class manufacturing system, as well as the excellence of our employees, who have been trained in more than six countries across three continents,” said, Camilo Pérez Bustos, General Director at CANPACK Colombia. “With the arrival of this state-of-the-art plant we are changing the history of packaging in the country," he added.

The support of Colombian institutions and agencies responsible for promoting and attracting foreign investment to Colombia such as ProColombia and Invest in Bogota, has been essential in developing this investment.

“In our role to promote and attract foreign investments, we seek efficient, responsible and sustainable investments, ones that contribute to the growth and competitiveness of our nation. We celebrate CANPACK’s choice to invest in our country, a decision which contributes to the transformation of the beverage packaging sector, increasing the knowledge transfer, job creation and good practices for the development of Colombia,” – said Flavia Santoro, President at ProColombia.

According to Juan Gabriel Pérez, Executive Director at Invest in Bogota: “investments such as the one made by CANPACK with the support of AB InvBev in Bogota demonstrate the full potential that the city has as a regional platform for companies seeking to enter or expand their presence in the Latin American market. It is also the exact type of a company which we are seeking to attract to the city, with a strong technological component and with a production model focused on sustainability”.