Unilever pumps up Brazilian squeeze bottle factory amid rising regional demands

07 Jun 2024 --- Unilever is investing €14.7 million (US$16 million) in Hellmann’s new factory line in Pouso Alegre, Brazil, to respond to soaring local demand for the squeeze bottle sauce format, which grew by 30% in volume across the nation in 2023.

The investment is expected to increase production capacity by double digits. 

“We are growing at double digits across the business in Brazil, mainly in squeeze bottle lines. Every month we are gaining market share and we need more capacity,” says Edmundo Mollo, factory director at Pouso Alegre.

The packaging format has featured in other prominent launches, such as Kraft Heinz’s recyclable Tomato Ketchup squeeze bottle.

The F&B giant furthermore announced its goal to reduce the use of virgin plastic throughout its global packaging portfolio by 20% by 2030.

 Brazilian consumer demand for squeeze bottle sauce formats has been rising, leading to a 30% increase last year.Advancing green operations
Edmundo affirms that the Unilever investment enables efficiency supported by the latest technological advancements.

The Pouso Alegre plant is implementing sustainable operations with its “state-of-the-art” biodigester, according to Unilever. Since its installment last year, the biodigester has delivered 100% of the thermal renewable energy needed to power the plant.

With the new investment, the factory is expected to “enhance operational excellence further.”

“It [the investment] gives us the opportunity to further optimize in terms of performance, equipment components and data collection,” says Edmundo, adding that machine learning and AI will allow “continual improvement” of the factory’s efficiency.

Unilever trims back plastic reduction targets
Meanwhile, Unilever officially updated its Carbon Action Transition Plan to reflect a shift toward near-term measures that do not set “unrealistic” long-term goals.

The company had previously announced it would be axing a range of its plastic reduction targets. Unilever’s global head of packaging, Pablo Costa, explained that overly ambitious targets were made with the best information available at the time, but circumstances had “disappointingly” changed.

In an interview with Packaging Insights, Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher said national rules will not suffice to unite the world’s current “fragmented policy environment,” which is forcing major companies to pull back from their pollution commitments in order to stay competitive. The conversation followed the recent close of the penultimate negotiation round for a UN global plastics treaty (INC-4) in Canada.

By Natalie Schwertheim