Portola Packaing closes cosmetics unit to focus on beverages

Seeing opportunity in the non-carbonated beverage sector, Portola Packaging has decided to shut down its Portola Tech International cosmetics closure and container manufacturing unit to focus on growing its beverage and bottle closure business.

The company intends to cease production at its Cumberland plant in the US and Nanhai plant in China by the end of August. It will liquidate business assets, such as manufacturing equipment and moulds, by the end of the year.

Portola has reported double-digit percentage growths for its beverage closure volume over the past three years. Growth in the juice, dairy and speciality beverage markets has been strong, which the company attributes to manufacturing and quality initiatives, new stock and custom closures for tamper evident, aseptic and extended shelf-life applications.

“We believe that even more opportunities lie ahead for the non-carbonated beverage sector,” said Kevin Kwilinski, President and CEO of Portola. “That’s why we’ve decided to focus 100% of our efforts in supplying brand owners with beverage closures that meet or exceed performance and marketing objective.”

Portola will operate 10 manufacturing facilities around the world: three in the US, three in Canada and one each in Mexico, the UK, New Zealand and the Czech Republic.