Rigid Containers, the corrugated packaging specialist, plans further investment after buying a four-colour Latitude flexo casemaker to improve its print capability for retail-ready packaging.

Rigid, part of Belgium-based VPK Group, will install the new machine, a PP10-25 casemaker bought through Latitude’s UK agent GTS (Europe), at its Desborough site in Northamptonshire, in January 2012.

The installation follows that of a higher-spec Latitude at Rigid’s plant in Selby, North Yorkshire, last year, and UK managing director Richard Coward said he planned more investment at Desborough in the next 12 to 18 months to match the print quality offered at Selby.

The Desborough casemaker will be the fourth Latitude machine within VPK Group, following the installation at Selby and two in Romania. It will come equipped with a pre-feeder, end-of-line palletiser and materials handling systems.

The new casemaker is part of a £2.5m investment this year at Desborough, which also includes factory renovations and extensions, as Rigid adds capacity.

Coward said market conditions were "much more buoyant" than earlier in the year, and that the new casemaker would help the firm as it "drives at the retail-ready packaging market".

Rigid employs 465 people in the UK; 165 at Selby, 180 in Desborough and the remainder in HQ and sales roles. Its parent, VPK, has sales of ¤630m (£554m) and operates more than 25 sites across Europe.

It is also an integrated group, manufacturing packaging papers for its own sites and the wider market.