Beyond The Headlines: Berry Global to evaluate its HH&S value, DRT Holdings acquires Custom Machining Corporation

15 Sep 2023 --- This week in industry news, Berry Global began evaluating alternatives for its Health, Hygiene and Specialties segment (HH&S) to maximize shareholder value. Meanwhile, DRT Holdings acquired Custom Machining Corporation, and UPM Raflatac picked Raben and Reganta to win the RafCycle Award at Labelexpo Europe 2023.

In brief: Business news
Berry Global initiated a formal process to evaluate strategic alternatives for its HH&S, which provides nonwovens, specialty films and tapes for various end markets, including healthcare, hygiene, consumer, building and construction and industrials. Berry is considering a wide range of alternatives to maximize shareholder value, including, but not limited to, a sale, strategic partnership or joint venture, spin-off to shareholders or other separation transaction for some or all of the businesses within HH&S.

The Scotch Malt Whisky created a paper pulp sculpture.R.R. Donnelley & Sons (RRD), a global marketing, packaging, print and supply chain solutions provider, expanded its digital printing capabilities by installing the EFI Nozomi C18000 Plus single-pass digital inkjet printer. Located at RRD’s packaging facility specializing in signage and displays near Milwaukee, US, the single-pass digital press is expected to be operational by the fall of 2023. The press enables RRD to reduce time-to-market by 25%, maximize color and design options, and prioritize environmental sustainability on large-format runs of various different-sized substrates while delivering consistent print quality.

DRT Holdings, which provides manufacturing solutions to the metal packaging, aerospace and precision industrial segments, acquired Custom Machining Corporation (CMC). CMC offers high-speed, high-precision liner systems and parts for metal packaging applications serving the end markets for food, beverage and household products. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. DRT is a portfolio company of Mill Rock Capital, a growth- and operations-oriented private investment firm that invests in middle-market businesses in North America.

In brief: Awards and celebrations
UPM Raflatac announced Raben and Reganta as the winners of the RafCycle Award at Labelexpo Europe 2023 in Brussels. The RafCycle Award is presented in recognition of their recycling efforts and value chain collaboration. Raben, one of Poland’s largest logistics companies, demonstrated a commitment to improving its environmental performance. The company initiated recycling the label waste with UPM Raflatac’s label waste recycling service RafCycle. UPM Raflatac collects label-release liner waste from Raben and transforms it into valuable new raw materials. Currently, Raben does not just recycle its liner waste but has also taken UPM Raflatac’s more sustainable RAFNTX+ paper label materials into use. UPM Raflatac named Raben and Reganta as the winners of the RafCycle Award.

Henkel and CCL won the Alexander Watson Associates Sleeve Label Award in the “Environmental Contribution” category for their sustainable design of Henkel’s Vernel fabric softener bottle. To improve the recyclability of the PET bottle bodies of its fabric softeners in Europe, Henkel partnered with CCL, who has developed a new generation of floatable polyolefin material for shrink sleeves called EcoFloat. This low-density material can be separated from PET bottle components during the sink-float separation process at recycling facilities. While the heavier bottle material sinks to the bottom of the water baths, the lightweight sleeve material floats to the top, even with full printed designs. This enables a clean separation of the PET and the label material, which is necessary to gain high-quality PET recyclate.

Braskem announced that it was selected to participate in an upcoming segment in the “World’s Greatest…!” television series on Bloomberg Television. Braskem was chosen to participate in the series based on the company’s investment in creating a carbon-neutral circular economy and its commitment to producing environmentally sustainable products. How2Media, the production company responsible for the show, flew a film crew out to Braskem’s Innovation and Technology Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to learn more about Braskem’s history, innovation and environmental sustainability efforts.

In brief: Launches
Georgia-Pacific (GP) expanded its EarthKraft line of curbside recyclable mailers to include an unpadded mailer for e-commerce shipments. Unpadded EarthKraft mailers offer protection in a lightweight and flexible design, which can reduce freight costs. The mailers are also designed to be easy to pack, which can improve warehouse efficiency. GP has sold more than one billion EarthKraft padded mailers to e-commerce companies looking for a cost-competitive alternative to plastic mailers. The company anticipates a similar demand for the newly introduced unpadded mailer.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, part of the Artisanal Spirits Company, unveiled a paper pulp sculpture infused with wood shavings from the original casks for a one-off bottle of whisky to be auctioned off for charity. The environmentally-friendly sculpture was designed for the company’s inaugural contribution to the Distillers One of One auction at Sotheby’s next month, which brings together a collection of rare Scotch whiskies from distilleries across Scotland.

In brief: Tradeshows
Videojet Technologies, a coding, marking and printing solutions company, showcased its latest product advancements that help manufacturers simplify their digital factory journeys at Pack Expo in Las Vegas, US, September 11-13. Videojet experts demonstrated Industry 4.0-enabled innovations in continuous inkjet printers, laser marking systems, thermal transfer overprinters, thermal inkjet printers, case coders, print and apply labelers, vision inspection, and Wi-Fi and cellular cloud connectivity solutions.

By Sabine Waldeck