Page 42 - Packaging News Mar-Apr 2020
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INTERPACK | TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE www.packagingnews.com.au | March-April 2020
  Beverage boost
Ahead of the interpack trade show, Melanie Streich takes a closer look at the burgeoning beverage sector and the packaging technology driving and supporting its growth.
The beverage industry needs to be able to react to the continually changing demands of consumers and trade by providing a variety of products in increasingly shorter intervals. This requires continuous, new product modifications as well as new developments, combined with specific marketing measures for different target groups.
In this area, digital printing pro- vides maximum flexibility. Market- ing strategies can be implemented overnight, without having to worry about first using up bottle labels cur- rently in stock. The printing process can be used on virgin PET as well as on rPET (recycled PET), and uses inks that can be removed from the PET without any residue during recycling.
The beverage industry as well as the associated process and packaging industries are well positioned to meet these rising challenges, and offer numerous innovations from machine availability, production and process optimisation to the use of digital solutions and Industry 4.0 measures. These will be exhibited at the upcoming interpack, scheduled to take place in Düsseldorf from 7 to 13 May 2020. A total of 1544 exhibi- tors have confirmed that they will be presenting solutions for the beverage industry – including the latest devel-
opments along the entire machine and equipment value chain, from various types of containers to mate-
rials and recycling.
SUSTAINABILITY IN FOCUS
Beverage manufacturers and packagers are reacting to cus- tomer demands for sustainable products with intelligent tech- nologies, machines and equip- ment that conserve resources as well as with recyclable materials that can be used in closed cycles.
Global beverage brands, such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, are bank- ing on sustainable raw materials and one hundred per cent recy- clability when it comes to pri- mary and secondary packaging. By 2025 – 2030 at the latest – Coca-Cola, for example, aims to return one item of packaging
THE prospects for the global bever- age industry are excellent, as data provided by Euromonitor Interna- tional and the VDMA Food Pro- cessing and Packaging Machinery Association shows. According to this data, 947 billion litres of bev-
erages were consumed globally in 2018. By 2023, the demand is expected to increase even further – by 16.3 per cent to over one trillion litres (1,101 billion litres).
Alongside consumption growth, consumer demands regarding the quality and sustainability of prod- ucts and packaging have increased. Consumers are both well-informed and sensitised. When selecting prod- ucts, they tend to make more con- scious decisions and attach greater importance to ingredients and their origins, and the sustainability status of their packaging.
The increase in out-of-home con- sumption and the desire for more convenience has led to a rising
demand for individual beverages in light-weight packaging and smaller batches. Furthermore, the share of consumers that belong to the 50+ gen- eration is higher than average in the field of beverages. In future, this ‘sil- ver generation’ will become more and more important as a target group for beverage suppliers. Low-calorie, high-quality and healthy beverages are popular among this group, which also expects packaging to be designed in a way that makes it easy to open and just as easy to reseal.
DEMANDS ON THE INDUSTRY
Flourishing markets invariably pro- mote competition and intensify the pressure beverage manufacturers are already under; these include fluctuating prices for raw materials as well as a considerable price com- petition in the food retail trade. This calls for energy-efficient, resource- conserving and flexible solutions for a closed circular economy.
  PHOTO: COCA-COLA GERMANY
PHOTO: MELANIE STREICH














































































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