Bemis Company Inc. announced July 6 that it had signed a definitive agreement with mining giant Rio Tinto to acquire the Food Americas operations of Alcan Packaging. With the transaction, worth $1 billion cash and another $200 million in company stock, Bemis will gain 23 flexible packaging facilities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and New Zealand. The plants produce flexible packaging for the food and beverage industries.

With the acquisition, Bemis expects the percentage of net sales to the food packaging space to increase from 57% to nearly 70% of its total net sales. The transaction also will add 4,600 employees to Bemis’ global workforce for a total of over 20,000 employees in 84 manufacturing locations worldwide.