MILLIONS of plastic bags made in a Malvern factory were opened on New Year's Day as much of Europe converted to the new single currency.

Enigma Park-based Automated Packaging Systems won a £100,000 contract earlier this year to make bags for 'starter packs' of euro notes and coins.

The company has already turned out 5.5 million bags at its plant on Sandys Way. These were shipped to the National Bank of Belgium, where they were filled with euros and sent to the 12 EU countries which have adopted the new currency.

Most of the European Union countries - but not Britain - began phasing out their own currencies on January 1, to be replaced by the euro. The familiar franc, deutschmark, drachma, lire and peseta are among those which will be scrapped.

Robin Hill, product manager at Automated Packaging Systems, said the firm had been invited to tender for the euro bag contract by the Bank of Belgium.

He said: "We're very pleased to be involved with the euro, even though we're not using it in Britain. We were proud to help launch it in Europe.

"Many companies we deal with are already using euros, particularly those in Ireland. The Royal Mint here is already one of our customers and we have clients across the world."

Automated Packaging Systems can trace its ancestry back to 1935, when it was established in Birmingham. It moved to Malvern in 1960.

The company is now American-owned, with Malvern as its European headquarters, and is one of the world's leading manufacturers of bags and bagging machinery.