Beyond The Headlines: Smurfit Westrock’s beer advent calendar pack, ProAmpac’s moisture control film

This week in industry news, Smurfit Westrock partnered with Beer52 in creating its advent calendar packaging. Meanwhile, ProAmpac will be presenting its moisture adsorbing film technology at Pack Expo and Sage Sustainable Electronics acquired Relectro.

In brief: collaborations

Smurfit Westrock collaborated with Beer52 on the craft beer advent calendar packaging. The product gives customers 24 unique craft beers to try in the lead-up to Christmas while touted as visually impactful and supply-chain friendly. The sustainable custom is designed with minimal components.

Gaia Biomaterials signed an agreement with Smartpack, making its compostable plastic alternative material, Biodolomer, available in Chile. This marks Gaia Biomaterials’ first agent agreement in Latin America. Chile recently passed a law that will ban all single-use plastic in several fields. The industry has been searching for materials that are non-plastic but have all the characteristics of plastic.

B!pod, a business unit of Saes Getters, has selected Sabic’s ocean bound plastic (OBP) based polypropylene resin as the material for their containers. The partners selected Sabic PP 576P, a high-gloss grade from the company’s Truecircle portfolio of circular resins. The container material has an OBP feedstock content in the range of 50%. The source of the OBP in Sabic’s material is used plastic collected in regions within 50 km of shorelines and then converted to plastic feedstock by means of advanced recycling. 

In brief: Pack Expo 2024

ProAmpac's innovation allows for faster, more flexible production while ensuring product integrity.ProAmpac will present its Moisture Protect (MP) series of films at Pack Expo International in Chicago, US, between November 3–6. The MP films are a new packaging solution designed to tackle moisture control without desiccant sachets. The products lock in moisture within the packaging headspace, allowing for new combinations of packaging formats and formulations previously unattainable with traditional materials. Attendees will learn how the Aptar CSP three-phase polymer technology incorporated in the MP series adsorbs moisture directly from the package headspace, reducing water activity and improving product stability. 

Epson will be presenting its color label solutions at Pack Expo International 2024. Epson will demonstrate its new ColorWorks on-demand color label printers designed for businesses across various industries, including cosmetic, F&B and pharmaceutical. Among highlights, the CW-C8000 color inkjet printer (gloss) allows users to produce labels with vibrant image quality and crisp precision at “incredible” print speeds. The LabelMate Botlr, a semi-automatic round bottle label applicator, will also be shown with pre-printed satin semi-gloss labels from the ColorWorks CW-C6000A gloss label printer. Designed with print speeds of up to 5 inches per second, Epson’s CW-C6000A produces sharp, full-color labels and comes standard with an auto cutter to create variable length labels.

In brief: Mergers and acquisitions

James Jones & Sons expanded its UK Pallets and Packaging Division by acquiring HG Timber, based in Buckingham, UK. HG Timber is an operator in the pallet and packaging and racking sectors. Also in this month, James Jones & Sons’ Australian subsidiary, Hyne Group, acquired Pinetec, a pallet and packaging business based in Perth, Australia. With these acquisitions, James Jones & Sons continues to grow and innovate as an international provider of timber products.Hyne Group source logs from Queensland, Victoria and South Australia (Image credit: Hyne Group).

Sage Sustainable Electronics acquired Relectro, a provider of electronics repair, refurbishment and logistics services. The move strengthened the company’s existing IT Asset Disposition services and was completed through a follow-on investment from Closed Loop Partners’ buyout private equity group, which is focused on acquiring and growing circular economy platforms. The acquisition of Relectro aims to build a comprehensive suite of solutions that can keep more devices in circulation.

In brief: Expansions and validations

FirmaPak, a manufacturer of blow molded packaging solutions, relocated its facility to a larger building in New Castle, US. The new location triples the size of FirmaPak’s current site. FirmaPak owns blow molders Container Services and Apex Plastics. The new facility will offer increased production capacity, additional warehouse space and more loading docks. As part of its relocation plan, FirmaPak is also investing in new machines, including a new 6-cavity, 2-stage PET machine for higher-volume projects.

Climate protection organization Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) confirmed that Krones Group’s net zero target strategy corresponds to the current state of science and is in line with the 1.5-degree Celsius target of the Paris Climate Agreement. The group plans to have reduced its GHG emissions along the entire value chain to net zero by 2040. According to the SBTi criteria, Krones will reduce its emissions along the entire value chain by at least 90% and neutralize the remaining 10%. The group has made progress with its own emissions in Scopes 1 and 2, which have already been reduced by 51% compared to the base year.