August 26, 2009

Impress and Daiwa Can Sign Strategic Alliance

Impress and Daiwa Can announced today that they have reached agreement on a Strategic Alliance to develop and commercialize novel types of metal packaging.

As a first step the agreement will give Impress exclusive rights to market Daiwa's range of re-sealable bottle cans in Europe. In a second phase the agreement provides for production of bottle cans in Europe in a jointly owned company.

Daiwa was the first company to introduce metal bottle cans with resealable caps in 2000. Daiwa's bottle cans have been a major commercial success in Japan in a wide variety of end-markets and have won several international packaging awards. The Daiwa range currently includes three product types:

- New bottle Can: a three piece laminated aluminium bottle with capacity from 290 to 500ml.
- WORC: a wide mouth three-piece bottle can in steel with a capacity of 170ml.
- Mini Bottle Can: a two piece aluminium bottle with 100ml capacity.
All three products are sterilizable and have a re-sealable cap.

'We see many potential applications for these packages in Europe', said Francis Labbé, chief executive of Impress. 'The Daiwa products are lightweight, easy to carry and use, and are well adapted to today's life styles'

'We are very pleased to agree this alliance with Impress', said Hisakazu Yamaguchi, President of Daiwa Can. 'Impress and Daiwa share the belief that metal packaging must be developed to meet the changing needs of consumers, while continuously reducing environmental impacts. We expect this to be a first step in a broader alliance covering other areas of mutually beneficial development'

Daiwa Can is one of Japan's leading packaging manufacturers, with years of experience and technical expertise, supplying Japan's major food and beverage manufacturers with top quality containers and packaging solutions that take a creative, value-added approach in the marketplace. Daiwa Can had a sales turnover of approximately 2 billion USD in 2008 and is currently expanding its operations in the United States and Taiwan with the aim of becoming a global packaging enterprise.

Impress is a global market leader in the consumer metal packaging industry. It is the worldwide leader in the seafood can market, European and Australasian leader for aerosol cans, European leader in cans for Paints and Coatings and European leader in cans for Infant Formula and Nutritional Powders. Impress is also the second largest supplier of heat processed food cans in Europe and Australasia. Impress is based in Deventer, the Netherlands and has worldwide sales of approximately €1.8 billion. It employs approximately 8000 people in 56 facilities in 21 countries in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Seychelles and Morocco.

For further Information please contact
Impress
Blanche Frankel: Press’Publica:
Tel: +33 (1) 56 89 56 64; Fax: +33 56 89 56 50; e-mail: b.frankel@press-publica.fr
Mary Chapman Communications: Mary Chapman:
Tel: +44 (0) 1452 720208 Fax: +44 (0) 1452723724 e-mail: marychpm@aol.com

Daiwa
Daiwa Can Company: Norikazu Miyata:
Tel: +81 (0)3 3272 0590 Fax: +81 (0)3 3272 0587 email:n-miyata@mail.daiwa-can.co.jp

Discover Impress on: www.impressgroup.com and Daiwa on www.daiwa-can.com