Photo by Troostwijk Auctions Constar Plastics' plant in Zevenaar.

PET preform and bottle maker Constar Plastics BV in the Netherlands has ceased operations due to ongoing losses. Its machinery is set to be sold off in an auction.

The company, which operated one plant located in Zevenaar, closed in early September with the loss of 25 jobs. It had previously been part of US-based Constar International Holdings, a former giant in the North American blow moulded container market which entered bankruptcy protection in December 2013.

In early 2014, the US business was sold to Plastipak Packaging and Constar’s UK factory was sold to Sherburn Acquisitions, which then sold the plant to Esterform Packaging in January 2015. The Netherlands plant was sold to UTB Industry in May 2014 and was the only one to continue bearing the Constar name.

UTB Industry is a Dutch investment group which acquires loss-making companies with the objective of making them profitable. In its turnaround plan, UTB put money into Constar Plastics but was unable to stop its losses, said Dennis Draijer, management consultant at UTB.

“We made efforts to generate new business over one-and-a-half years but unfortunately without success,” said Draijer.

Customers had taken their business to other rigid packaging producers when Constar entered bankruptcy, he said. Some returned to Constar Plastics under UTB’s ownership, but many of the larger, international customers did not bring their business back, he said.

Troostwijk Auctions is holding an online auction on 23 November to sell Constar Plastics’ injection moulding machines, blow moulding machines, moulds and ancillary equipment. Draijer pointed out that included in the technology are two Husky PET preform systems fitted with Kortec co-injection technology.