
1930s
Aluminum closures were first developed at Alcoa’s New Kensington, PA research lab. The first commercial aluminum closure was called a “Goldy”, due to the bright gold coating. The first major customer was H.J. Heinz, which used the popular Goldy closure to seal sauces and ketchups.

1940s
Closure manufacturing operations began in Richmond, Indiana. At that time, the company was known as the Aluminum Seal Company.

1950s
Aluminum tamper-evident liquor, pharmaceutical and motor oil closures dominated their markets.

1960s
The resealable 28mm aluminum roll-on closure was developed for the beer and soft drink industries.

1970s
Alcoa CSI was created through the unification of Alcoa’s worldwide metal closure and capping equipment businesses.

1980s
Alcoa CSI acquired H-C Industries, Inc., which had developed a patented compression molding process to make plastic closures for carbonated soft drinks. The first successful plastic closure for carbonated soft drinks was the “H-C Wing-Lok” design. With continuous updating and improvements in sealing and high-speed application, this design is still in demand in many regions of the world today.

1990s
The “Double-Lok” closure was developed to provide improved tamper evidence over existing designs. Alcoa CSI developed under-the-cap (UTC) video jet printing technology to provide high quality, low cost, flexible promotional capability. Aggressive expansion overseas continued with the addition of new plants in China, Bahrain, Hungary, and Russia. International expansion also included the addition of a European regional headquarters in London, a regional sales office in Singapore, and a technical service center in Malaysia. Alcoa CSI developed a new line of water closures, including a push-pull sports cap and offered other innovative developments including spout fitments for gable top juice containers and hot fill closures for isotonic drinks.

2000s
Alcoa CSI acquired MCG Closures, Ltd, expanding our presence throughout Europe. Southern Plastics (Kilgore, TX), producer of injection molded closures for the food, dairy and personal care industries, was also acquired. In 2003, Alcoa CSI created a new European headquarters in Barcelona, Spain to centralize regional decision-making and to further enhance technology development, including a state-of-the-art technology research and development center in the facility. A highly nimble, innovative and customer-focused organization to serve the specialized packaging, equipment and technical service needs of Europe was created.
In 2004, Alcoa CSI South America, the former Aluminio and Alusud closure businesses located in South America, became organizationally integrated with Alcoa CSI. In addition to Alcoa CSI’s rotatory compression technology, the South American group also had extensive injection molding capability and experience, most notably in the edible oil closures market in Brazil and Argentina. Also importantly, CSI Egypt began producing closures near Cairo.

2010s
Rank Group Limited, headquartered in New Zealand, acquired Alcoa’s Packaging Group, including Alcoa Closure Systems International in 2008. As a result, our company name became Closure Systems International, commonly abbreviated as CSI. Since then, CSI has continued aggressive global expansion; acquiring Innopack (Mexico) and Obrist North America, opening new closure production facilities in China and India, and developing important new joint ventures in a number of countries around the world.

Today
On December 20, 2019, Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., headquartered in New York, New York, acquired the North American and Japanese businesses of CSI from Rank Group Limited.