Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft ( German for Swiss Industry Company , known in French as Société Industrielle Suisse ) , or SIG , is the former name of SIG Holding AG , a Swiss company that has been active in various businesses during its more than 150 years of operation . Since the year 2000 the Society has undergone strategic refocus , concentrating on its core compentence in packaging technology . Today SIG comprises one division : SIG Combibloc , specializing in aseptic carton . Since 5 November 2007 , SIG Holding AG is a part of Reynolds Group Holdings Ltd . , the private investment company of businessman Graeme Hart . Railways . In 1853 , SIG was founded in Neuhausen am Rheinfall ( Canton of Schaffhausen , Switzerland ) , as a manufacturer of railway car s . In the late 1970s , SIG was one of two builders of Toronto ' s latest tram , the CLRV L1 . Only the first six CLRV cars were made by SIG , the rest by UTDC . The tilting system of the SBB RABDe 500 was developed by SIG . The railway branch of SIG was sold in 1995 to FIAT and in 2000 to Alstom , today only components are manufactured in the Neuhausen works . Firearms . From 1860 to 2000 , SIG produced firearms . The products were imported into the USA under the name SIG Arms . Due to Swiss restrictions on the export of military weapons , SIG entered into a relationship with the German company J . P . Sauer & Sohn in order to allow SIG access to the world firearms market . The first automatic rifle of the world - Mondragón produced between 1901 and ~ 1910 . The SIG P210 pistol was developed between 1938 and 1945 , and was adopted by the Swiss military in 1949 as the " Pistole 49 " . The single - action semi - automatic P210 brought SIG much acclaim , due to the precision manufacturing processes employed in its manufacture and its resultant accuracy and reliability . The P210 frame design incorporates external rails that fit closely with the slide , thus eliminating " play " in the mechanism during firing . The P210 was replaced by the Swiss military in 1975 with the P220 , dubbed the " Pistole 75 " . In a 1984 bidding contest to provide more than 300 , 000 sidearms to the US military , the SIG - Sauer P226 was narrowly defeated by the Beretta 92FS . The SIG SG 510 / ( Stgw . 57 ) Battle Rifles were produced by SIG from 1957 to 1983 . Its appearance was similar to the German MG34 and used roller - delayed blowback used on the CETME / HK rifles . The only general purpose machine gun produced by SIG was the SIG 710 - 3 . In 2000 , the new company Swiss Arms took over the firearms branch of SIG . Packaging . The first packaging machines were produced in 1906 on behalf of the Lausanne based SAPAL company ( Société Anonyme des Plieuses Automatiques ) . Most of SIG ' s earlier packaging equipment efforts were focused on small dry food items such as chocolates and candy . With the acquisition of Doboy Packaging in the U . S . on June 28 , 1983 , SIG grew its international presence . In 1989 , through the acquisition of PKL in Linnich , Germany , SIG entered the field of aseptic liquid packaging . This business grows significantly and is later known as SIG Combibloc . In 2000 SIG concentrated its group focus solely on technology for packaging of food and beverages . By this time many of their traditional businesses such as Arms and Rocktools had been divested . Management used the resulting cash to procure global businesses including Krupp Kunstofftechnik ( Corpoplast / Blowtec / Kautex brands ) and HAMBA in Germany ; Ryka Blow Molds in Canada ; and a substantial portion of the Italian conglomerate SASIB . The food - related ( dry ) businesses were organized under the SIG Pack division , while the beverage - related ( wet ) businesses formed SIG Beverages . Aseptic liquid packaging remained separate under SIG Combibloc . This strategy , while intended to provide common customer bases with turnkey solutions for entire bottling or packaging lines , never gained enough momentum to be of any durable competitive advantage . Difficulties integrating vastly different businesses and employee cultures resulted in operational execution issues . In particular , high - profile commissioning and installation failures at SIG Beverages in 2003 and 2004 ultimately resulted in erosion of goodwill serious enough to be recorded on financial statements . A refocusing towards primarily aseptics and PET blow - molding resulted in a high number of divestitures and plant closures . The former SASIB wet businesses Simonazzi , Alfa and Meyer / Mojonnier were sold to Tetra Laval in 2005 , while HAMBA and Kautex / Blowtec went into the hands of separate private investor groups . The food packaging businesses were sold to Robert Bosch Verpackungstechnik in 2004 . The former SASIB dry unit Stewart Systems ( bread and bun bakery production lines ) was sold to UCA Group in 2004 and subsequently merged with AMF Bakery Systems in 2008 . Laser guided vehicle manufacturer Electric 80 , part of the 1999 SASIB acquisition , was sold back to its original Italian owners in 2004 . The considerably slimmed - down SIG Beverages unit , focused on machines for PET bottle blow - molding machinery , was sold off to the German concern Salzgitter AG in March 2008 . This sale encompassed the subsidiaries Corpoplast , Asbofill , Plasmax and Moldtec . Today Combibloc is the last remaining business unit of SIG , its sole focus being machinery / materials for aseptic carton packaging .