By Jim Johnson
SENIOR STAFF REPORTER
Published: March 4, 2014 5:41 pm ET
Updated: March 4, 2014 5:51 pm ET
Image By: Plastics News
Mark Teo
Sigma Plastics Group, which already calls itself North America's largest privately owned flexible packaging company, is getting even bigger.
The Lyndhurst, N.J.-based firm is buying all of the equipment at Excelsior Packaging Group's Yonkers, N.Y., facility as well as all of the printing assets of the company's Rosman, N.C., site.
The North Carolina portion includes what Sigma calls three technologically advanced 10-color Fischer & Krecke printing presses capable of running 3,000 feet per minute.
"The presses are believed to be the widest and fastest printing presses in the world," Sigma said in a statement.
Sigma will operate the Rosman location as a new legal entity called New Excelsior Inc. and specialize in medical and hygienic packaging, the company said.
Printing and converting assets from Excelsior's Yonkers location will be relocated to Sigma's Mercury Plastics location in the City of Industry, Calif. Extrusion equipment will go to Sigma's Allied Extruders of Long Island City, N.Y.
Ronnie Shemesh is CEO at Excelsior and he will become a consultant to the printing operation during the transition, Sigma said.
"Ronnie Shemesh and Excelsior Packaging have always invested in the very best technology and equipment which is consistent with the Sigma philosophy," said Sigma President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Teo said in a statement.
It was just in January that Sigma's stretch film division said it was expanding its cast and blown film capacity.
The company, at the time, said it planned to begin a five-layer blown stretch film line at a Belleville, Ontario, plant early this year. That follows the start of a five-layer cast film line in Shelbyville, Ky., last fall.
Sigma, when announcing the purchase of the Excelsior assets, said it has 40 locations in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Sigma ranks second on Plastics News' latest film and sheet producers with annual film and sheet sales of $2.45 billion. | 
