The Soignies plant has been part of Avery Dennison since the acquisition of Mactac's European activity in August 2016. The plant specialises primarily in the production of self-adhesive items used in internal and external visual communication. The range of products manufactured on the site will extent to other graphic products sold under the Avery Dennison, Jac and Mactac brands.

The creation of what will be Avery Dennison's largest European plant, which was announced in July 2018, anticipates several facilities moving to Soignies and the construction of new installations to bring this site up to the best standards in safety and manufacturing capacities. An external logistics platform used by Avery Dennison in Tournai, Belgium, will also be extended to complete the expansion.

The Graphics Solutions activity will recruit manufacturing operators, supervisors and specialised technical personnel to support the development of the site, taking the number of employees to over 650 once the expansion project is completed in May 2019.

Our Soignies site has a solid foundation of expertise and capacities on which we can build a fantastic European centre of excellence for our future graphic solutions. We can see a lot of opportunities to grow in Europe and to support the dynamism of our clients, by adapting to the most recent trends among consumers and industry," stated Frédéric Noël, Vice-President of Graphics Solutions (Avery Dennison Europe). The fact is that Avery Dennison's choice was influenced by Wallonia's perfect geographical location in the heart of Europe, combined with the extremely dense communications infrastructures.

Carlo di Antonio, Walloon Minister for (primarily) Spatial Planning and Zoning, who has been actively involved in this dossier, praised the effectiveness of public support, "In the past, some processing times were far too long. The new Land Use Planning Code was designed to remove all the obstacles to issuing permits in order to accelerate and support the implementation of economic development projects in our region". The 280 business parks in Wallonia testify to the Region's goal of being an area of excellence for hosting businesses in Western Europe.

It should be noted that the extension of the activity of foreign investors already established in Wallonia represents almost half of the amount invested and more than one third of the jobs created during the period 2000-2017.