Page 12 - Packaging News Magazine Mar-Apr 2021

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SUSTAINABILITY | www.packagingnews.com.au | March-April 2021
Pact Group CEO on leading
the circular economy
Australasia’s largest rigid plastic packaging producer, Pact Group, has defined its platforms for growth and repositioned its brand under the banner Leading the Circular Economy. Lindy Hughson sat down with CEO Sanjay Dayal to unpack what this means for the $1.8bn company and its customers.
HEN Sanjay Dayal stepped into the role of CEO at Pact Group in April 2019, one of the first things he did was to call for a strategic review of the busi- ness. His aim was to identify the activities and operations
core to Pact’s continued success, which in turn would inform deci- sions around future resource alloca- tion and capital investment.
The review was timely and neces- sary. Dayal had taken over the reins at a turbulent time for the business. A few months into his tenure, the group’s FY 2019 results reported a net loss after tax of $290m, while the share price plum- meted 16.5 per cent. Contributing fac- tors cited were drought, weaker demand from the agricultural, food and beverage sectors, and higher raw material and energy costs.
But there was more to it than the market challenges faced by all pack- aging companies. Dayal recognised in Pact a company that had grown rap- idly by acquisition – by 2019 it was the product of some 40 acquisitions – and had diversified from its core strengths. It found itself, for example, engaged in contract manufacturing, a division Dayal has since signalled it will be divesting. His motivation for the move, announced in January 2020 although yet to happen, is in line with the group’s recent refocusing on its core business of reuse, recycling, and packaging solutions.
Dayal’s single-minded focus on discovering the group’s sustainable
advantage as an integrated supplier is borne out of years of leadership experience in manufacturing and supply chain across diverse global organisations.
The strategic review, completed in FY20, made clear that Pact’s success over the longer term is dependent on its ability to deliver organic growth and restore margins in its core pack- aging business while growing its materials handling and sustainabil- ity businesses.
So, it was against this backdrop that I sat down with Dayal to find out what the company’s ‘leading the circular economy’ tagline means to the busi- ness, and indeed to the wider market that is chasing down ambitious 2025 National Packaging Targets.
“Leading the Circular Economy through reuse, recycling and packag- ing solutions is more than Pact’s
tagline – it is the group’s vision and future-driven commitment designed to create lasting value for all stake- holders,” Dayal says.
“What differentiates us is that our core business capabilities work as one across the whole circular economy; it’s a complete closed loop approach.”
The three core business capabili- ties that emerged post-review are now branded as Pact Recycling, Pact Packaging and Pact Reuse. Pact Recycling operates to ensure a supply of locally sourced recycled material to feed the packaging converting business, Pact Packaging, which in turn manufactures rigid plastic pack- aging for a wide-ranging customer base across the food, grocery and industrial sectors.
Pact Reuse, Dayal says, has solu- tions that meet the growing need for alternatives to single-use packaging