Par-Pak installs new APET sheet line (November 01, 2003)

Par-Pak Ltd., the Brampton, ON-based manufacturer of thermoformed containers for the food and deli industry, has purchased and installed a new Davis-Standard coextrusion line for extrusion of amorphous PET sheet. Output of the new line is roughly 25 million lb./yr., according to Amin Sajun, Par-Pak vice president of operations. The new line was delivered to the company’s Brampton extrusion facility in May, and will soon be in full-scale commercial production.

Company president Sajjad Ebrahim founded Par-Pak 26 years ago. The company established its headquarters in Brampton in 1990. Currently, four buildings at the site house separate operations for sheet extrusion, thermoforming, machine and toolmaking and warehousing of finished goods, providing a total floor space of 275,000 sq. ft.

Throughout the 1990s the company opened thermoforming facilities in Texas, California and the United Kingdom. In 1999, Par-Pak began producing biaxially oriented polystyrene (BOPS) sheet used in the manufacture of its thermoformed bakery containers. Par-Pak’s BOPS line is one of the largest in the world, with a capacity of 40 million lb./yr.

Sajun says the decision to buy the APET line was made in order to satisfy growing demand for APET containers in frozen food applications. “Consumers like the look and feel of PET, and the material also has better low temperature properties.” The APET will be used to produce the company’s custom containers, and Par-Pak will also sell sheet to outside interests.

The company has capitalized on growing demand for take-home deli food and baked goods, and today Par-Pak has over 75 thermoforming machines and 1,500 tools in operation.

“Our strength is in the design and engineering of custom products,” reports Sajun. He says the company is finalizing plans for further expansion at the Brampton site sometime next year.