Rengo Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Kita-ku, Osaka; Chairman, President & CEO: Kiyoshi Otsubo) announces its consolidated subsidiary, Howa Sangyo Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Funabashi-shi, Chiba; President & CEO: Yoshitaka Ozawa; hereafter “Howa Sangyo”), has expanded Howa Sangyo's Hikata Plant (located in Asahi-shi, Chiba) with an automated warehouse.

Howa Sangyo is one of the core companies of Rengo Group's flexible packaging business, manufacturing a diverse range of flexible packaging products that enrich more comfortable lifestyles. Their products include film packaging with unique wrapping features for onigiri and sandwiches, and packaging for a variety of other products spanning processed foods to medical equipment.

Howa Sangyo uses an integrated production system from design proposal to product manufacturing (plate-making, gravure printing, laminating, slitting, bag-making), so as to deliver high-quality flexible packaging products. Hikata Plant is Howa Sangyo's largest production site and produces a wide range of film packaging materials. Since the plant was established in 1995, it has been leading the industry as an automated plant equipped with the latest facilities. Demand for flexible packaging has increased in recent years with the diversification of consumers’ needs, and there was a pressing need to build a new automated warehouse to handle the increasing production volume.

With the building of the automated warehouse, not only is the chronic lack of warehouse space resolved, but costs such as external storage are also reduced. The system is also more than capable of handling future increases in demand.

“General Packaging Industry (GPI)” Rengo promotes the comprehensive enhancement of packaging, and will continue to work to further expand flexible packaging business, a field which Rengo expects to continue to grow as an important core field.