CCL eyes new business segment after acquisition of Capri Sun’s Pouch Partners

22 Jun 2023 --- Pouch Partners, a provider of flexible laminates to the Capri Sun Group for Capri Sun pouches, has been acquired by CCL Industries. The company asserts that if this investment is successful in Europe, CCL would be interested to develop the product line globally, alongside its decorative label portfolio.

“Pouches are a packaging format we’ve looked at for a long time as an adjacency to our label and sleeve decorating technologies with a similar modus operandi,” says Guenther Birkner, president of Food & Beverage at CCL Label.

“Our common customers see them as an interesting alternative to rigid containers with labels. Pouch Partners has highly focused, deep know-how for these materials, a solid foundation to enter this market.” 

The new business will then trade as CCL Specialty Pouches and become a part of the company’s F&B division. 

“There are opportunities to utilize this technology in the F&B and the home and personal care spaces and interesting potential to design new, sustainable, barrier films at our sister company Innovia Films who are experts in material science and develop the packaging materials of the future,” says Reinhard Streit, vice president and managing director of Food & Beverage Europe at CCL Label.

Pouches made from flexible material are designed to minimize the use of packaging materials.“We see many of our global brand customers turn to alternative packaging solutions to substitute packaging that has a high carbon footprint, pouches provide a lightweight solution.”

Investments and divestments
Pouch Partners has been operating as a family owned business for the last 50 years and has been part of the Capri Sun Group since October 2017. CCL Industries signed a binding agreement to acquire Pouch PartnersItaly from Pouch Partners Switzerland, owned by Swiss headquartered Capri-Sun Group. 

“After the development of our recyclable pouch for Capri Sun with the help of Pouch Partners, it was time to focus again on our core business: Beverages,” says Roland Weening, CEO of the Capri Sun Group and chairman of Pouch Partners.

“Divesting the business to CCL, a large and successful player in packaging, makes a lot of sense for the future. We are excited to continue to partner with CCL, now as a strategic customer and will for sure benefit from their expertise, R&D resource and worldwide presence.” 

Refillability credentials
According to CCL, pouches made from flexible material are designed to minimize the use of packaging materials and are lightweight – therefore reducing the ecological footprint during transportation and storage.

CCL is working with its sustainability partners like Circular Economy for Labels, Plastics Recyclers Europe and RecyClass to make sure the pouches can and will be recycled.

The company furthermore cites data from Flexible Packaging Europe to detail that pouches have an “outstanding” packaging-to-product ratio compared to rigid packaging types and the shape and the format can be adjusted to exactly fit the product volume resulting in material savings.

“Since several years there has been a lot of development and innovation in the packaging market with the goal to make packaging more reusable and recyclable to support a circular economy,” says CCL. 

“One major trend has been to provide a refillable solution for the parent packaging. Typically the parent packaging is a more premium bottle or container and the pouches provide the refill option.”

Reusable revival 
Packaging Insights recently highlighted “Reusable packaging revival” as a top industry trend flagged by global market researcher Innova Market Insights. 

Major FMCGs are pursuing refill models for circular economy gains, but the refillable packaging market is “still in its infancy,” Emmi Randell, head of business development at Sulapac, told us. 

Meanwhile, Pablo Costa, Unilever’s global vice president of packaging, said that “a global revolution toward refillable and reusable packaging could be a game-changer in reducing the use of virgin plastic.” 

By Radhika Sikaria