Amcor Ltd will sell two packaging plants in Sweden and the United Kingdom as part of an ongoing restructure of its flexibles business in Europe.

The box and packaging giant has entered an agreement to sell the plants in Lund in Sweden and Somerset in the UK, to Swedish private equity firm Accent Equity 2008.

It did not disclose the sale price.

Amcor`s main products include PET plastic containers for beverage products, flexible packaging for the food and healthcare markets, tobacco packaging, corrugated boxes and a North American distribution business.

Amcor, which operates 217 plants in 34 countries, said the sale was part of a previously announced repositioning program that is making solid progress.

``The overall restructuring program continues to make solid progress and remains on target to deliver an estimated PBIT (profit before interest and tax) benefit of 30 million euros ($A51.38 million) per annum for an estimated cash cost of 60 million euros ($A102.76 million) ... `` the company said.

The two plants mainly produce unprinted films for the meat and fish sector and have combined sales of about 85 million euros ($A145.57 million).

In 2007, Amcor also offloaded its European plastic container business to a Spanish company for almost 425 million euros ($A723.5 million).

Amcor expects most of the benefits of the rationalisation to be realised in 2009/10.

It is understood that about 900 jobs are to be cut, with more plant closures and asset sales to come over the next 12 months.

The Melbourne-based company is seeking to boost its weighting in lower cost regions such as southern and eastern Europe, and to better align itself with the needs of customers and market trends.

Amcor estimates the total flexibles market in Western Europe to be worth about 9 billion euros ($A15.3 billion) while Central and Eastern Europe is about 1 billion euros ($A1.7 billion).

The current manufacturing footprint in Europe is 38 plants, in 15 countries.

Earlier this month, Amcor announced an investment of 25 million euros ($A42.7 million) to build a new plant in Lodz, Poland, which includes the relocation of its current flexibles plant in the same town.

Separately, Amcor will begin operations next month at a new plant in Poland dedicated to PepsiCo`s packaging for their fast-growing snack food business in Eastern Europe.

Shaw Stockbroking analyst Brent Mitchell was not surprised by the divestment of the two plants.

``They are non core operations and producing basic raw materials goods rather than finished product, so it is not surprising they have sold,`` he said.

Mr Mitchell said Amcor will likely move further into Eastern Europe as major food companies look for a slice of that new market, which is estimated to be growing at between 15 per cent and 25 per cent a year.

In February, Amcor warned it is facing challenging economic times after booking a flat profit from continuing operations.

Its net profit before significant items was $185 million, unchanged from the corresponding period in fiscal 2007.

In contrast, its net profit after a series of one-off items looked much better - rising by 30.8 per cent to $154 million.

The strong Australian dollar gave Amcor a headache when it translated its earnings - 70 per cent of which are achieved offshore, mostly in Europe and America.

Amcor shares closed up six cents at $6.67 on Tuesday.