The Boston Beer Company has signed a purchase and sale agreement with Diageo North America to acquire a brewery located 60 miles outside of Philadelphia, PA, for $55 million.  The purchase is expected to take place in late spring 2008. It is expected that the Pennsylvania brewery will initially increase Boston Beer’s capacity by approximately 1.6 million barrels annually.

KHS named Michael Brancato as president of KHS USA Inc., overseeing the operations in the US and Canada. Brancato was previously director of sales for the KHS beverage division.



FDA, which is responsible for overseeing about 80% of the US food supply, has suspended plans to close seven of its 13 labs around the country. Andrew von Eschenbach said plans to keep the facilities open was viewed by some lawmakers as essential to protecting the food supply from tainted products.



PPM Technologies, a newly formed corporation, has signed an agreement with FMC Technologies to acquire Allen Systems and PPM, suppliers of global food processing and packaging technologies. Wright Capital Global Equities will fund the PPM Technologies business.

GE Fanuc Automation has entered into an agreement with Pepperl + Fuchs North America to provide interface components for industrial automation systems including Profibus and digital fieldbus communications.

The Food Packaging Division of the Institute of Food Technology (IFT) awarded the Riester-Davis Award to Tom Powers (left), director of marketing and R&D at Multisorb Technologies. Powers received the award for innovative contributions over 35 years to the field of food packaging technology. His expertise includes moisture management technologies and oxygen scavengers.



Larry Pereira has joined SensorLogic as vice president of marketing. Pereira will remain actively involved in the development of wireless standards for industrial sensors, including the ISA100 initiative.



David R. Underwood has been named president, Cown Food Packaging, North America. He previously served as president, Crown Aerosol Packaging USA.