Weekly Roundup: ProAmpac acquires Belle-Pak, Tesco hits plastics reduction milestone

25 Feb 2022 --- In packaging news this week, ProAmpac acquired Belle-Pak Packaging, a leading Canadian manufacturer of flexible packaging. Also, Tesco revealed it had removed one and a half billion pieces of “unnecessary plastic” from its UK business, and Berry Global became the first customer of ExxonMobil’s certified circular polymers.

In brief: Acquisitions
ProAmpac acquired Belle-Pak Packaging, an award-winning manufacturer of flexible packaging products. With the addition of Belle-Pak, ProAmpac expanded its growing presence in Canada and extended its reach in high-growth e-commerce, healthcare and logistics end markets. Ontario-based Belle-Pak’s diverse portfolio of flexible packaging products includes poly mailers for e-commerce and logistics services, packing list envelopes and custom medical and clinical bags.

KKR, a global investment firm, acquired a majority stake in Refresco, one of the largest independent beverage contract manufacturers in the world. Terms of the transaction, which are subject to closing conditions, were not disclosed. “Refresco has established itself as an industry leader supporting the global beverage industry with a blue-chip global customer base, an experienced and highly regarded management team, and an impressive network of assets that provides compelling value to customers,” said James Cunningham, partner at KKR.

In brief: Virgin plastic reduction
Tesco revealed it had removed one and a half billion pieces of plastic from its UK business since it launched its 4Rs (Remove, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) packaging strategy. In the last 12 months, 500 million more pieces of “unnecessary plastic” have been identified and removed. Since the 4Rs strategy was launched, Tesco has removed:

• Plastic wrapped tinned multipacks, totaling more than 75 million pieces a year.
• All 50 million pieces of plastic wrapping from cans of branded beers and ciders.
• Over 100 million additional lids from products including wipes, creams, yogurts and desserts.
• More than 50 million pieces of plastic from greeting cards.
• Millions of plastic punnets from products such as peaches, plums and tomatoes.

ExxonMobil completed its first commercial sale of certified circular polymers, using its Exxtend technology for advanced recycling of plastic waste. The purchaser is Berry Global, a leading provider of innovative packaging and engineered products, using the circular polymers to manufacture containers for high-performance food-grade packaging on a mass balance approach.Hoffmann signed a partnership with Saperatec.

In brief: Environmental commitments
Thyssenkrupp Steel partnered with the non-profit organization ResponsibleSteel, ensuring that steel is responsibly sourced and manufactured through a global standard and certification program. “By committing ourselves to the principles of ResponsibleSteel certification process, we want to give our customers the certainty that we are shaping our transformation to climate-neutral steel production along the entire value chain, also taking into account social and ecological criteria,” explained Arnd Köfler, Thyssenkrupp Steel’s CTO.

Huhtamaki signed a Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (VPPA) in the US, covering 30% of its electricity usage in North America, marking a major step in its ambition to use 100% renewable electricity by 2030. The 12-year VPPA agreement was made with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, the world’s largest renewable energy generator from the wind and sun. “The agreement builds on the European VPPA agreement announced late in 2021, which covers 80% of our European electricity usage,” commented Thomas Guest, Huhtamaki’s deputy CEO.

Hoffmann Neopac became the first tube manufacturer to sign a partnership with Saperatec. The manufacturer of barrier tubes for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and oral care products will supply its production waste to Saperatec, the first industrial recycling plant for aluminum laminate composites, upon its opening in mid-2023. In a pilot plant, Saperatec demonstrated the ability to break down multilayer composite materials such as PE/Al into their individual materials, enabling a high level of material recycling. Utilizing a special washing technique, Saperatec separates plastic and aluminum layers without dissolving them. A laboratory study at Saperatec in spring 2021 with various ABL tubes from Neopac showed that its Polyfoil tubes, for example, can be separated completely through this process.Avery Dennison’s Smartrac Circus NFC inlays & tags.

In brief: New products and enhancements
James Cropper launched a colored paper range using dye derived from plant extract, which would have otherwise been wasted. The new “industry-first” Wainwright Colours from Nature range is the papermaker’s latest solution to create value from waste streams. Designed primarily for the packaging and publishing sectors, extensive research and development work has ensured no compromise on the range’s technical performance, the company said.

Avery Dennison unveiled Smartrac’s Circus NFC inlays & tags for applications where small size and high performance are critical. The round-form products are ideal for small stickers, key fobs and item-level tagging. Circus NFC inlays & tags are available with NXP’s NTAG210 Micro, NTAG213 and NTAG216 chips. Circus NFC with the NTAG210 Micro chip is a cost-efficient alternative where a small size with 48 bytes of user memory is required, meeting the applications such as media advertising or collectible playing cards.Smurfit Kappa invested in its Design2Market Factory.

IMA Dairy & Food USA enhanced the cutting tools utilized for its recently introduced Zero Technology, which helps food brands easily utilize environmentally sustainable monomaterial cup packages. Highlighted by an extractable central cutting unit design, the innovation drastically reduces production downtime for change-outs, minimizes spare part costs and significantly raises the number of punches between sharpenings.

In brief: Design investment
Smurfit Kappa invested in its new Design2Market Factory, a unique facility creating a fast and seamless development process from packaging design through to market launch. The investment, which includes a digital printer and die cutter, provides rapid prototyping for pilot production, industry-leading packaging performance analysis and field lab facilities under one roof. The Design2Market Factory is well placed to cater to two of the biggest trends within the packaging industry, environmental sustainability and e-commerce, with customer data, cutting-edge machinery and long-term expertise utilized to enhance customers’ competitive advantage.

By Joshua Poole