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Impress will take a majority stake in a new company to be called Royal Impress headquartered in Royal Can's premises in the Bangkok area. The total investment in the joint venture was not disclosed.

The new venture's objective is to serve mainly the domestic market, although exports are part of its plans. Impress Group and Royal Can jointly have adequate capacity to meet the requirements of the market and its foreseeable growth.

Impress exports empty aluminium cans from its European factories to Thailand, where many of the cans are filled and re-exported to the world's main consuming markets in Japan, North America and Europe.

Thavee Thanawatcharangkoor, managing director of Royal Can, recently said the new company would have a winning combination of |market knowledge, technical skills and research and development resources.

"The association with Impress will enable us to bring the highest level of technical assistance to our customers to support their export activities, and to introduce the latest innovations and developments in aluminium seafood cans," he said.

Royal Can is one of the leading local can-makers, with a complete range of steel and aluminium cans produced on highly efficient modern equipment.

Francis Labb, CEO of Impress Group, said the venture in Thailand together with its recent acquisition of Megasa in Spain, a new factory in Morocco a and joint venture with Inesa in Peru gives Impress a presence on all five continents and in each of the major seafood-processing countries in the world.

"Thailand is the world's largest exporter of canned tuna and Thai seafood products are on the shelves everywhere in the world.

GLOBAL LEADER

As the global leader of this growing market, Impress had to be physically present in Thailand.

"We are proud to be associated in this venture with Royal Can, Thailand's leading independent can-maker," he said.

Impress's immediate focus is to make a success of this joint venture in Thailand, the largest and most advanced seafood processing country in the region, he said. In general the group intends to increase its business in Southeast Asia.

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.

It is also the second largest supplier of heat-processed food cans in Europe and Australasia.

Impress, based in Deventer, had worldwide sales of about ¤1.7 billion (Bt81 billion) last year.

It employs about 8,000 people in 55 facilities in 21 countries in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Seychelles and Morocco.