Weekly Roundup: Notch secures US$10M to streamline restaurant packaging supply chain, Huhtamaki to reveal 2022 financials

20 Jan 2023 --- This week in industry news, Notch raised US$10 million to help restaurants move all their supply chain payments online, Huhtamaki announced it is hosting an audiocast and teleconference to disclose its 2022 fiscal year and Avery Dennison’s rubber-based hotmelt adhesives received certifications in biobased content. 

In Brief: Business news
Huhtamaki announced it will publish its 2022 performance results on February 9 on the investor section of its website. The company said it would arrange a combined audiocast and teleconference on the same day presented by Huhtamaki’s CEO and president, Charles Héaulmé and CFO, Thomas Geust. Registration is required for the teleconference. The event will be followed by a question and answer session. An on-demand replay of the audiocast is set to be made available shortly after the end of the call. 

Antares Vision Group supplies solution for berry company with consumer responsive packaging. Special Shapes Refractory Company (SSRC) responded to feedback from customers and partners after attending Glasstec and by expanding its international presence to offer consistent pricing, rapid turnaround and solutions to glass manufacturers in Europe, South America, Mexico, Central America and beyond. SSRC partnered with Refmon to provide more cohesive refractory solutions for the glass market. Additionally, the company expanded its international team and Trusted Partners with local sales agents in Central America with Ontal and South America with Fábio Bernardo.

Antares Vision Group piloted a Supply Chain Transparency solution for a prominent berry company. The project digitalized over 1.5 billion products, which empowered the berry producer to protect, support and communicate with its customers. Powered by technology from rfxcel, part of the solution package enables data concerning harvested berries to be collected and integrated into a platform that fully controls product safety and quality. The producer scans each clamshell to associate berry type, farm and growing conditions using Antares Vision Group’s advanced serialization and mobile traceability technologies. Consumers can scan an on-package QR Code to take a survey, giving the producer valuable insight into its customers’ impressions of specific berries grown at certain locations. 

In Brief: Technology news
Notch, a software provider to the wholesale foodservice industry, raised US$10 million in a funding round led by Portage. In Q1 of 2023, Notch announced it would release its AP manager solution to help restaurants move all their supply chain payments online to aid in paying for their to-go packaging. Restaurants across North America can move off cash and cheque and seamlessly pay their packaging vendors through the Notch platform. In late 2022, Notch rolled out an Accounts Receivable solution for wholesale distributors, such as packers creating solutions for takeaway food. Notch’s solution automated collections and brings payments online for distributors across North America. The company saw an 800% year-over-year growth with this new product.

Britvic adopted SIG’s PAC.TRUST digital solution in its plants in Ceará and Minas Gerais, Brazil. It said it would adopt the Laboratory Information Management Systems and Digitalization modules of the PAC.TRUST solution, enabling traceability of internal processes in minutes. The solution is a tool to digitize monitoring and quality records at the three plants of the Britvic group in Brazil, located in Astolfo Dutra, Araguari and Aracati. The switch eliminates the need to convert physical documents to multiple spreadsheets and provides more security to information within the respective plants.

In Brief: Tradeshows Avery Dennison scientist working on the rubber-based hotmelt adhesives certified for bio-based content. 
TekniPlex announced it would showcase samples from a range of its cyclic olefin copolymer diagnostics films for the healthcare space at Pharmapack Paris, occurring between February first and second. The company said its product is the “world’s first” fully transparent recyclable mid-barrier blister package. Its classic film offers sealing properties and a low background UV autofluorescence required for multiplexing in polymerase chain reaction diagnostics. In addition, the film has a glass transition temperature of 78°C and an ultra-flat surface, enabling nano-structuring through hot embossing and nano-imprint lithography.

Gerhard Schubert GmbH’s first trade fair appearance of 2023 is the CFIA in Rennes from March 14 to 16. The Schubert experts are set to show their customers, potential customers and visitors the company’s many innovations and sustainable packaging solutions. With its Mission Blue Sustainability Initiative, the German packaging machine manufacturer has made it its mission to support the food sector on its journey toward climate-friendly packaging. The trade fair presentations focus on practical application examples for the food, dairy, baked goods and confectionery industries. These include automated packaging solutions for mastering tasks such as pick and place, packaging into flowpacks and cartoning various products and formats.

In Brief: Awards and recognition
CDP, a non-profit environmental, social and governance rating agency, recently issued its updated ratings for organizations around the world for 2022. Ardagh Metal Packaging (AMP), a global supplier of beverage cans, was awarded a leadership rating of A- for water management and a B-rating for climate change. AMP previously secured ratings from CDP with Ardagh Glass Packaging, both businesses of Ardagh Group. This was the first year for an independent CDP rating, with the company being benchmarked against peer organizations in the metal manufacturers category. 

Ardagh Glass Packaging – North America (AGP–NA), a business of the Ardagh Group, was awarded an Energy Star plant certification for its glass making facility in Madera, US, from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The facility demonstrated superior energy performance and performs within the top 25% of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency and meets strict energy efficiency performance levels set by the EPA. The Madera facility manufactures approximately one million glass containers daily for the US wine market. Since 2010, 10 Ardagh facilities have received 51 Energy Star plant and building certifications. AGP-NA remains the only US glass container manufacturer to earn this recognition for multiple facilities over multiple years.

Avery Dennison Labels and Packaging Materials Europe announced that most of its rubber-based hotmelt adhesives are certified for bio-based content by renowned European certifying body TÜV Austria. TÜV Austria offers its “OK biobased” certification as an independent guarantee of the percentage of renewable content in products. The certification guarantees that these adhesives contain a minimum of 20% renewable raw materials. Products can be certified as one-, two-, three-, or four-stars depending on their content. The new certification was applied to 98% of Avery Dennison’s rubber-based hotmelt adhesive volume. Most received the 2-star certification (guaranteed minimum of 40% renewable content).

By Sabine Waldeck