Weekly Roundup: Constantia acquires Polish flexibles company, Huhtamaki grows net sales to €4.5 billion

03 Mar 2023 --- This week in industry news, Constantia Flexibles acquired Drukpol Flexo to solidify its position in the Polish flexible packaging market. Meanwhile, Huhtamaki published its Annual Report 2022 and Siegburg created a fully recyclable monomaterial PE pouch.

In brief: Acquisitions and collaborations 
Constantia Flexibles signed an agreement to acquire the Polish company Drukpol Flexo. Drukpol Flexo has a position in the Polish flexible packaging market with solid flexo printing, extrusion lamination and vertical integration capabilities. It mainly serves domestic food and high-performance computing markets for local and international customers. It brings twoadditional sites close to Poland’s capital, Warsaw, complementing Constantia Flexibles’ existing sites Constantia Teich Poland in Rogowiec and Constantia ColorCap in Jejkowice.

H.B. Fuller Company announced that it joined RecyClass, a comprehensive cross-industry initiative open to companies actively looking to improve the circularity of plastic packaging and contribute toward the harmonization of recyclability and recycled content practices across Europe. The initiative brings together plastic value chain players to optimize plastic packaging recyclability and recycled plastic uptake while promoting the traceability of plastic waste and recycled plastic content in the European region through rigorous scientific testing and certification of innovative materials.

Cleancult’s paper-based refill home cleaning supplies are now available across the US.Blue Ocean Closures joined the 4evergreen alliance. The Swedish start-up developing proprietary fiber-based screw caps is now the 102nd member of the coalition. 4evergreen is a cross-industry alliance fostering synergies among companies promoting low-carbon and circular fiber-based packaging. The goal is to raise the overall recycling rate of fiber-based packaging to 90% by 2030. Blue Ocean Closures is exploring new packaging solutions and enabling brands such as The Absolut Company of Pernod Ricard to decrease their carbon footprint. 

In brief: Business news
Huhtamaki’s Annual Report 2022 was published on the company’s website. It comprises four sections, with a company overview including its 2030 Strategy, financials, governance and sustainability. The financial statements are published under the European Single Electronic Format reporting requirements. The report found that inflation affected all input costs, particularly raw materials, energy, freight and labor. As a result, the company’s comparable growth reached 15%, increasing net sales to €4.5 billion (US$4.7 billion) and increasing adjusted EBIT by 25%

SIG announced it would construct its first aseptic carton plant in India – the world’s largest milk market and one of the largest juice-producing countries globally. The company will invest approximately €60 million (US$64 million) over 2023–2025 to reach a production capacity of up to 4 billion packs annually. Subsequent investments could increase capacity up to 10 billion packs per annum. The plant will be in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. SIG entered the Indian market in 2018 and has seen a rapid expansion of its business. The plant will supply its growing filler base, serving all leading dairy and non-carbonated soft drink players. The investment will cover state-of-the-art production capacity for the printing and finishing aseptic carton packs with high environmental standards. Construction will commence in Q1 2023 and commercial production is expected toward the end of 2024.

In brief: Ecological packagingVanguard’s clamshells earned CMA-W approval from the Compost Manufacturing Alliance.
A fully recyclable monomaterial PE pouch was created by Siegburg that has similar properties to barely recyclable multimaterial laminated pouches. The new pouches utilized the latest polymers, inks, functional coatings, adhesives and conversion technology. They were the product of a unique value chain collaboration of ExxonMobil, Henkel, Kraus Folie, Siegwerk and Windmöller & Hölscher. The innovation allows for pouches that provide a high oxygen barrier, package integrity and shelf appeal. After removing the printing ink and the oxygen-barrier coating layer, it produces an almost colorless recyclate.

Siegwerk announced the certification of its new water-based coating UniNature Water-Oil Barrier Coating for single-use paper plates. The functional barrier solution is made from 100% natural content and has proven to effectively reduce the absorption of water, oil and grease on plate stock intended for direct food contact while maintaining its recyclability through the paper recovery cycle. Therefore, according to Single Use Plastics Directive and other relevant legislations, the new barrier coating offers a sustainable alternative to replace restricted coatings on single-use paper plates. 

Cleancult, a company in the home cleaning space on a mission to remove single-use plastic waste from the household cleaning category, announced its most significant retail expansion to date into more than 3,000 Walmart stores in the US. Through this new class of trade, Cleancult will bring their first-to-market, paper-based refill cartons of hand soaps, dish soaps, all-purpose cleaners and laundry into the homes of even more customers. The companies believe that Cleancult’s patented carton technology will help Walmart’s goal to avoid or reduce one billion metric tons of emissions from its global value chain by 2030. 

SIG is set to construct its first aseptic carton plant in India.Puratos, a global bakery, patisserie and chocolate ingredients provider, announced its commitment to switching to more sustainable packaging solutions. All of Puratos’s packaging will become 100% recycle-ready. Selected types will benefit from additional improvements such as paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, an ink reduction of up to 70%, and a more sustainable production process with fewer chemicals and less energy used. Puratos is also set to enhance several packaging types’ functionality for its customers’ convenience, including easier recycling, more straightforward opening and closing and better pallet stacking properties.

In brief: Certifications
Eco-Products revealed that one of its Vanguard clamshells earned CMA-W approval from the Compost Manufacturing Alliance (CMA), making it the first molded fiber item made with no-added PFAS to be approved by CMA. The award-winning products used proprietary chemistry to achieve grease resistance without adding PFAS, part of a class of materials sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals.” CMA provides field disintegration testing through several prominent processing methods to ensure products sent to industrial compost facilities adequately break down within the production cycle. In an ongoing project testing different molded fiber products, the Vanguard 9-inch, three-compartment clamshell met CMA’s windrow technology approval requirements. 

LifeMade Products, an operating company of Jadex, announced that the company’s LifeMade Compostable Straws had received OK compost Home certification from TÜV Austria. This achievement is in addition to the product’s BPI Commercially Compostable certification previously received. TÜV Austria OK compost Home certification assures consumers that LifeMade Compostable Straws will compost safely in any home compost heap. LifeMade’s complete line of disposable foodservice products, including home compostable straws, will be on display at the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show in New York, US, from March 5-7. 

By Sabine Waldeck

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