Crown Zeller USA, an affiliate of Crown Holdings Inc., has purchased 49 percent of Hazleton, Pa.-based Torres & Towers LLC, creating the first minority and Hispanic-owned business enterprise to produce and sell injection-molded closures. Torres & Towers will act as in-house contract molder for Crown Zeller USA, immediately increasing Crown’s own minority business spending. Earlier this year, Torres & Towers acquired the assets of Zapata Innovative Plastics Inc. The acquisition included six injection-molding production lines, complete with injection molds and secondary process equipment; curling, slitting, lining and printing machines.

Umpqua Dairy Products of Oregon has chosen San Diego-based CSB-System International Inc., to provide the family-owned dairy firm with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The new system will be implemented in phases, starting with inventory management, sales, purchasing and quality management. The second phase involves production planning, monitoring and control. Next, a network of handheld devices will be employed by Umpqua’s 50 sales drivers to streamline distribution and customer replenishment.

The Contract Manufacturing Association has changed its name to the Contract Packaging Association, updating the Naperville, Ill.-based organization’s moniker while further branding the association as efficient, versatile and growth oriented.

Irvine, Calif.-based Scholle Corp. has acquired 100 percent of the shares of Flextainer SA, a French packaging company. The business will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Scholle and continue to trade as Flextainer at its headquarters in Schalbach, near Strasbourg, France.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed its 100th partner in the SmartWaySM Transport Partnership at the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) annual meeting. EPA also unveiled its new public service announcement (PSA) campaign, Products on Wheels, for the partnership. The PSA campaign is designed to encourage freight shippers and carriers to join the partnership. The SmartWaySM Transport Partnership reached a significant milestone by signing New Ulm, Minn.-based J&R Schugel Trucking Inc. as its 100th partner, an achievement that signifies a movement within the freight industry toward cleaner, more efficient operations.

Chr. Hansen Inc., Milwaukee, has renovated its warehouse facility in New Berlin, Wis., a result of the construction of the world’s largest –55 degree C freezers — to store frozen cultures — at the company’s facilities in Milwaukee. Numerous freezers previously used to store frozen cultures were removed from the New Berlin warehouse, which cleared the way for a transformation of approximately 50,000 square feet. The company says the completion of the $1 million project allows consolidation of its human health and sweetener-finished goods from three public warehouses formerly used to distribute these products.