Berry Global Group, Inc. BERY recently announced plans to expand its foodservice packaging manufacturing operations in North America. The company’s investment plan, worth of around $110 million, is in sync with its long-term growth objective.

Berry Global’s shares inched down 0.5% yesterday to eventually close the trading session at $63.37.

Inside the Headlines

The company expects the investment to enhance its proprietary polypropylene thermoforming capabilities that will support the manufacturing of clear cups and clear lids. It will also be capable of producing clear cups and lids incorporating post-consumer resin and recyclable materials. It’s worth noting that polypropylene’s easy recyclable and low carbon dioxide emission properties make it a more eco-friendly substrate than other forms of plastics like PET.

The investment will likely enable Berry Global to capitalize on the growing demand for polypropylene in the foodservice packaging market. This will also augment the company’s focus on increasing polypropylene curbside recycling. The company expects this expansion to start operating in 2022 and create 200 jobs at its facilities.

Berry Global recently joined The Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling, which focuses on improving the recycling access for polypropylene. This move underlines the company’s commitment of strengthening recycling infrastructure and bringing circularity to the foodservice packaging market.

Zacks Rank, Price Performance and Estimate Trend

Berry Global, with an $8.6-billion market capitalization, currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). In the quarters ahead, the company is likely to gain from strength in its food service, healthcare and industrial product end markets, as well as acquisitions and organic growth investments. For fiscal 2021 (ending September 2021), it anticipates overall organic sales growth of 5%. However, rising costs and expenses pose a concern for the company.

In the past six months, the stock has gained 8.7% compared with the industry’s growth of 7.6%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

In the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s earnings has moved up 0.2% to $5.79 for fiscal 2021. The consensus estimate for fiscal 2022 (ending September 2022) earnings has also increased 0.2% to $6.33.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the Zacks Industrial Products sector are Greif, Inc. GEF, UFP Technologies, Inc. UFPT, and EnPro Industries, Inc. NPO. While Greif and UFP Technologies sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), EnPro carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Greif pulled off an earnings surprise of 11.46%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

UFP Technologies pulled off an earnings surprise of 32.22%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

EnPro pulled off an earnings surprise of 80.64%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

Greif, Inc. (GEF) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Berry Global Group, Inc. (BERY) : Free Stock Analysis Report

UFP Technologies, Inc. (UFPT) : Free Stock Analysis Report

EnPro Industries (NPO) : Free Stock Analysis Report

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.