Chinaplas: Gloucester CEO says packaging market growing in Asia-Pacific

Headquartered in Gloucester, MA, GEC is a designer and manufacturer of cast film, blown film, and foam extrusion lines, as well as bag making machines, and complementary auxiliary equipment from its subsidiaries, Future Design and Pearl Technologies. GEC has had a presence in the Asia-Pacific market for more than 25 years.

China's emerging middle class is changing many aspects of the country, including driving demand for packaging. In particular, packaging produced with polypropylene is a trend.

"There are more and more dual income families," Johnson said. "People are spending less time at the wet markets and there is a big push, especially here in China, for food packaging items."

Gloucester Engineering's product lines are customizable for each individual customer, which is a key competitive advantage, Johnson said.

Specialty, high-end extrusion applications such as cast stretch, agri stretch, high barrier, and other multi-layer films continue to be an area of continued growth for GEC.

In the past year, Gloucester Engineering has acquired two companies that improve GEC's overall portfolio of products and services:  Future Design Inc. of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, and Pearl Technologies of Savannah, NY.

Future Design is a manufacturer of products for the flexible packaging industry. The company is known for its blown film bubble management solutions in a wide array from small to big blown film applications and products such as their trademarked Saturn and Perfect Balance air rings (with profile control technology), patented SES evacuation systems, blown film line components, and Little Giant narrow web/lab lines.

Since 1985, Pearl Technologies has engineered and manufactured consumable parts for film extrusion and converting equipment.

For converters, Pearl has provided customers with customized aftermarket products such as punches, perforating, and slitting and wicket attachments. They carry a full line of air cylinders, ball and die punches, and perforation blades. They also offer trade-in and "on-your-line" demo trial programs.

Pearl's line of products for film extrusion work to lower friction and heat dissipation, which the company says leads to superior clarity, quality and output. Pearl has retrofitted over a thousand blown film lines for major extrusion equipment manufacturers around the globe.

Chinaplas 2013 and Brazil's Feiplastics are both being held at the same time. Johnson said the company felt it was important to have a presence at both events.

"The events provide the opportunity to talk with customers, suppliers, and even competitors, about the general feel for the state of the economy," he said. "Check the general mood and get a sense of where the industry currently is and is heading."