Around 150 staff will be making cartons, labels, leaflets and paperboard for multinational drugs companies by the autumn.

"We will be able to provide the same quality anti-counterfeit and packaging technology to Asia as we do in Europe," said chairman Thomas Johnson.

The site is next door to the firm's pharmaceuticals bottles plant in Kunshan. Chesapeake has also bought Impaxx Pharmaceutical Packaging Group for 35.8m ($65m).